Cats Conquered Laps and Hearts More Than Once, DNA Study Shows
Cats conquered our hearts and our laps more than once, a new genetic study shows.
DNA evidence suggests cats were domesticated several times, earning their keep around grain stores and traveling the world as vital crew members in the holds of ships.
The remains of cats have been found mummified in Egypt, in Viking graves and in various sites in the Mediterranean.
The research team, led by Claudio Ottoni of the University of Leuven, in Belgium, teased DNA out of the remains of 209 ancient cats dating back as far as 8,500 years ago.
They included remains found in Bulgaria and Romania dating back to 6,000 years ago; ancient Egyptian mummy samples; claws, skin, and bone from Spain, Belgium, France, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, and from Kenya, Tanzania, and Angola.
They looked specifically at mitochondrial DNA, which females pass to their children with only a few genetic changes. Mutations in the DNA can be used to date it and to track ancestry.
They found two broad families of domesticated cats, one coming roughly out of South Asia, and the second coming from the Mediterranean. Nowadays, they’re all so mixed as to look genetically identical, but the ancient evidence shows wild cats were domesticated at least twice, the team wrote in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Both lineages make up the subspecies Felis silvestris lybica, but the DNA shows domestic kitties interbred, and still do, with Wildcats in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The Southwest Asian line of cats made its way into Europe by 4400 BC, they report.
A separate lineage accounts for the felines shown in Egyptian tomb paintings and that were mummified and buried alongside their presumably adoring human companions.
The reasons people carried them around and protected them are obvious.
“While it is nowadays one of the most cherished companion animals in the Western world, for ancient societies barn cats, village cats, and ships’ cats provided critical protection against vermin, especially rodent pests responsible for economic loss and disease,” the researchers wrote.
“The increasing popularity of cats among Mediterranean cultures and particularly their usefulness on ships infested with rodents and other pests presumably triggered their dispersal across the Mediterranean.”
Read more at NBC News