The Canada lynx is thought to descend from a separate later migration of Eurasian lynx over the Bering Land Bridge around 200,000 years ago.

The Pliocene felid Felis rexroadensis from North America has been proposed as an even earlier ancestor; however, this was larger than any living species, and is not currently classified as a true lynx. Another extinct species of Lynx, L. shansius, inhabited what is now northern China during the Early Pleistocene, though this species is considered by some researchers