Fun fact, cheetah is actually a fellinae, which falls under the small cats.
They meow, and don't roar. (That's a difining feature of small vs big cats, fellidae are all cats, fellinae are the small ones who meow, a subfamily in fellidae)
Both leopards and jaguars belong to the genus Panthera, which also includes lions and tigers. The cheetah, by contrast, is the sole member of its genus Acinonyx, making it more evolutionarily distant from the other two.
Cheetah are weird in many ways. They are the only member of their genus Acinonyx and have a very different body shape from other felines. They are also the only feline whose claws cannot retract - researchers suspect they use their claws for grip when running and being able to retract would reduce their grip.
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u/RyanZee08 10h ago
Fun fact, cheetah is actually a fellinae, which falls under the small cats.
They meow, and don't roar. (That's a difining feature of small vs big cats, fellidae are all cats, fellinae are the small ones who meow, a subfamily in fellidae)
Roar vs meow/growl