[nyx_]

I looked at the cited paper[0], and I'm not sure the article author has correctly summarized its findings. As I understand it, the paper says "cyclical climate change probably caused this pattern of extinction->re-evolution (van der Hammen cycles)" and it points to overlapping changes in the geologic record (including canids and their teeth) as evidence of that claim.

I can't see anywhere where the article says "changes in canine dental morphology caused the cat gap."

Edited to say: oh derp, I only looked at the first line of the article - there's a discussion of that connection further down in the article, although it says in the summary that the connection is disputed.

[0]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-002-0392-1