CAT FAMILY EVOLUTION
(in millions of years)

   Cheetahs evolved about 5.5 million years ago along with the golden cats and pumas. Lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars evolved about 1.6 million years ago.

(Permission From: Elva Adams-CheetahSpot.com)

Cheetah Evolution

You can see from the diagram that the cheetah evolved 5.5 million years ago while most other felids evolved around 2 million years ago. The cheetah lineage is a group of cats that is known to be slender and long-limbed. The Acinonyx jubatus, or present day cheetah is known especially for a distinct caniodental and skeletal morphology (Christiansen and Mazak, 2009).

Cheetahs today come from Africa, Eurasia, and North America during the Late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene eras (Christiansen and Mazak, 2009). Now, the present day cheetah lives in different plains and open ranges in the southern part of Africa where they are best adapted to live. 

(Permission From: Elva Adams-CheetahSpot.com)

Habitat

Cheetahs are adapted to live in open plains in order to use a maximum speed to chase down prey. They are found mainly on the African grasslands and semideserts (seen on the image to the left), though some live in lightly wodded areas as well (Christiansen and Mazak, 2009).

Cheetahs need such open habitats because the high speed chases they undergo for hunting require perfectly visibility of the prey along with a limited amount of shrubbery to get in the way of sprinting. One study, at Kruger National Park in Africa, found that cheetahs had a higher success of hunting in an open woodland savanna than in wooded savanna areas that contained thicker bush. This is the case because the wooded brush appeared to obstruct the cheetahs sprinting ability while the open savannas allowed for a clear path to the prey (Mills et al., 2004). Evolutionarily speaking, the cheetah is found mainly in the savannas of africa because that is where their fitness is the highest.
Cheetahs do not like totally open plains though, because that allows them to be visible to both their prey and their predators. They prefer to live in savannas with some patches of woodland, or at least tall grass so they are able to hide and stalk their prey (Mills et al., 2004).  

Evolution of Speed

The reason the cheetah evolved for speed in the first place is because it needed to be fast enough to catch its prey, the gazelle. Both the cheetah and the gazelle have constantly evoled to be faster and faster in order to survive. The cheetahs that are not fast enough to catch their prey will starve and the fast cheetahs will pass their genes on.The gazelles that are not fast enough will get eaten and the fast ones will pass their genes on. This is a constant race and the faster the gazelle gets, the faster the cheetah gets as well. Once again, because the cheetah evolves to get faster and faster, it chooses the open plains habitat to fit its function of sprinting.