There are two points to make about this infographic. Firstly, I am a fan of infographics as they counteract the proliferation of articles on specific topics that contain far too much waffle. You have to plough through the irrelevant stuff to find the specific information that you are searching for. In a busy, competitive world this is frustrating. My infographics are too the point in providing almost instant information for those on the move.
Secondly, vis-a-vis this particular topic, you have to generalise as mentioned. One can only provide estimates and general data as there are always exceptions to the rule and one also has to factor in the difference in weights and sizes between the genders with – in general – females always being smaller than males in the cat and dog world.
But for around 10,000 years of selective breeding for cats, and probably more than twice that time for dogs there would be no great differences in size and weight. After all, at one stage in the evolution of the world, there were no domestic cats and the domestic cat ancestor is of a pretty regular size being a little larger than the domestic cat [the North African wildcat].
The same goes for dogs. The grey wolf precedes domestic dogs and they don’t vary that much in size. Dogs were and still are utilitarian animals leaving them exposed to selective breeding by people to suit their particular functions and purposes from hunting dogs to dogs designed to go down burrows.
The visually-orientated human likes very small and very large objects. Both fascinate. Size is important to the human. Generally speaking, large is better than small. Hence the surging popularity of the Maine Coon, often bred to enormous sizes and causing a viral social media presence.
For purists it is more important to focus on character and behaviour rather than size and bling. The F1 Savannah is another example of fascination with feline bling both in terms of sheer size and coat glamour.
More: largest domestic cat
More: Difference is size and weight of wild ancestor of domestic cat and dog respectively
