If you’ve ever lived with a cat, you know that they can often be an enigma. That said, scientists may be able to solve the mystery inspired by these interesting answers – with answers that may reduce when cats start to overdo it in the lap of humanity.
A large group of researchers examined the DNA of well-preserved cats found near human settlements dating back more than 10,000 years. The oldest specimens are closely related to the cats that we call pets even today, they found, while the fiery domestic cat may have only arrived in Europe 2,000 years ago. The discovery adds to the existing theory of where cats began, but also raises other questions about how they actually evolved.
“A new study makes a very strong case that domestic cats did not arrive in Europe until several thousand years ago,” Washington University in St. Louis, who was involved in the study, told Gizmoto.
The confusing origins of the cat
Domestic cat (Felix Catus) descended from the existing African Wildcat (Felis Lybica).
Today’s cats are physically and behaviorally very similar to their ancestors, unlike dogs, which can act and look very different from their ancestors. One of these problems is down to the length of time we have spent on these animals, respectively, since dogs were first introduced in our history, about 20,000 years ago. But part of it also has to do with the nature of our relationship with these animals.
At the very beginning, people deliberately frustrated dogs to do various tasks, while the first cats created many beneficial arrangements with people, eating insects and insects nearby while slowly moving out to better tolerate our presence and eventually become our dear friends. Given that, it’s not surprising that many scientists consider stray cats, or rather, indoor cats.
Since cats have not changed much compared to their wild ancestors, it has been difficult for scientists to narrow down when they began to be discriminated against, and that has led to competing theories about their origins.
One theory suggests that the house first started around 10,000 years ago in the Levant, a region of West Asia near the Eastern Mediterranean. The main evidence of this hypothesis was the recent discovery of the bones of a cat, buried together with a person in an archaeological site located in Cyprus. Some evidence suggested that Neolithic farmers from Anatolia, the peninsula that covers most of present-day Turkey, migrated and first brought domestic cats to Europe 6,000 years ago.
A more traditional hypothesis holds that Cat Domestication only took place in ancient Egypt 4,000 years ago, a time when cats were valued as the highest things we know, and they spread there.
Genetic mining
To help resolve this long-standing debate, researchers have used ancient DNA and analyzed it with new genetic sequencing techniques.
“Ancient DNA acts as a time machine and can be used to trace the changes associated with settling down at the same time and help identify the origin of domestic species and Marco de Martino told Gizmoto. “In addition, novel sequencing technology makes it possible to analyze complete genome data even in ancient hands.”
The team reconstructed the genomes of 70 ancient cats collected from samples in North Africa, Europe and Anatolia. These cats were written between the 9th century BCE and the 19th century CE. They also analyzed the genomes of modern domestic and wild cats to create an updated family tree of the species.
Their genetic makeup revealed several things.
First, modern cats are more closely related to wild animals from North Africa than to wild animals from the Levant. Second, the first samples of European domestic cats found in Europe date back 2,000 years, while the older cat samples in Europe and Turkey were of wild genetics, or Felis Silvestris. It is possible that these wild people of the past are African cats, but long before domestic cats were domesticated.
Although it is possible that people used and tried to remember wild cats in our times, the research of the group shows that this journey to the real dominance of cats did not take much longer than it was thought that our cats went to Europe (and came from there, the world).
“Our discovery challenges the view that is often made of the Neolithic introduction of domestic cats in Europe, instead placing them a thousand years later,” said the authors of the paper, published Thursday in Science.
Investigators also seem to clear up some confusion about Wildcats living on the island of Sardinia (Italy).
They found that ancient cats and ancient sardines are closely related to the northern and central wild spaces of cats. That suggests that humans brought a high number of wild cats to the island about 2,200 years ago, separated from the large introduction of European domestic cats; That would also mean that Sardinian cats are not descendants of domestic cats, as is currently widely believed.
Furry mysteries left to solve
Although the group’s findings seem strong, it is possible that some researchers may decide to contradict them. And of course you couldn’t find everything in the early days of the domestic cat.
Losos notes, for example, that while genealogical evidence seems to place the European introduction of cats about 2,000 years ago, pottery shows that it may have been 3,000 years.
Another problem is that while we have a lot of ancient Egyptian cat Mummies, it is really hard to find functional DNA in these types of samples, and there are no other types of cat living in that region and time. As a result, we are still in the dark as to when and how the first hometecals made their transition to earth habitation.
“The big question that remains is when discrimination occurs; that is, when the domestic cat, Felix Catusit came from its ancestors, the Northern Wildcat, “said Lesosos, who registered a corresponding observation in the new study.
This current study is part of an ongoing project, the Felix project, which aims to trace back the origins of the domestic cat. And researchers plan to dig deeper into the distant past of our Forry felines.
“Our goal now is to analyze ancient archaeological samples from Africa, including Egyptian mummies from the Paleolithic period,” said Ottoni and De Martino.
However, cats become friends of people – or show them, depending on your point of view – undoubtedly a relationship that continues to win – to win things for both species (but especially people).
