The Evolution of House Cats

alan • 11th Jun 2009 • FromElsewhere

The Evolution of House Cats: Scientific American:

[genetic analysis] revealed five genetic clusters, or lineages, of wildcats. Four of these lineages corresponded neatly with four of the known subspecies of wildcat and dwelled in specific places: F. silvestris silvestris in Europe, F. s. bieti in China, F. s. ornata in Central Asia and F. s. cafra in southern Africa. The fifth lineage, however, included not only the fifth known subspecies of wildcat — F. s. lybica in the Middle East—but also the hundreds of domestic cats that were sampled, including purebred and mixed-breed felines from the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. In fact, genetically, F. s. lybica wildcats collected in remote deserts of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were virtually indistinguishable from domestic cats. That the domestic cats grouped with F. s. lybica alone among wildcats meant that domestic cats arose in a single locale, the Middle East, and not in other places where wildcats are common.

The article goes on to postulate that wildcats took advantage of increased rodent populations in proximity to humans, caused by the commencement of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago in the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent — much earlier and in a different location to the established wisdom of where the relationship between man and cat started. Makes sense though.

(Via Scientific American.)