Origin story of domestic cats rewritten by genetic analysis

Genetic evidence has shown that domestic cats originated in North Africa and spread to Europe and East Asia over the past 2,000 years, later than previously thought.

Domestic cats (Cat) descended from the African wild cat (Libyan cats) and today they are found on all continents except Antarctica.

Previous research has shown that domestic cats originated in the Levant and may have arrived in Europe as early as 9600 BC.

Claudio Ottoni from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy and his colleagues studied 225 specimens of ancient cats from nearly 100 archaeological sites in Europe and what is now Turkey. From these they obtained 70 ancient genomes, covering a period of more than 10 millennia from the ninth millennium BC to the 19th century AD. They also obtained 17 genomes from museum specimens and modern wild cats from Italy, Bulgaria, Morocco and Tunisia.

The earliest cat that the team genetically identified as an African wildcat or domestic cat was a specimen from Sardinia, Italy, radiocarbon dated to the second century AD. All earlier cats in Europe were genetically European wildcats (Wild cats).

This shows that the spread of domestic cats occurred much later than previously thought.

Ottoni says Mediterranean civilizations in the first millennium BC were primarily responsible for the spread of African wild cats, which involved at least two genetically distinct populations. One population probably included feral cats from northwestern Africa that were introduced to Sardinia and established the modern feral cat populations on the island. The second subsequently became the genetic predecessor of modern domestic cats.

“Early on in the domestication process, cats probably adapted very well to the human environment,” he says. “Their ecological plasticity made them very successful. They were able to thrive with people in a variety of environments, in urban and suburban environments, accompanying them on long journeys, and this marked their evolutionary success.”

In the second study, Shu-Jin Lo from Peking University in China and her colleagues studied 22 sets of cat remains from China spanning more than 5,000 years and analyzed the genomes of 130 modern and ancient Eurasian cat specimens. They were surprised to discover that more than 5,000 years ago, another cat species lived alongside humans: the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), a small wild cat native to East Asia.

“These cats frequented human settlements and were probably attracted to rodents, but they were never truly domesticated,” Luo says.

The study found that true domestic cats arrived in China much later, around 1,300 years ago, during the Tang Dynasty. Genomic evidence links them to cats from the Middle East and Central Asia, suggesting they were brought to China along the Silk Road by traders.

Despite a long commensal relationship that lasted more than 3,500 years, leopard cats were ultimately never domesticated and returned to their natural habitat, Luo says.

“I often receive curious questions from the public about whether these cute leopard cats can be kept as pets, especially if raised from kittens,” she says. “My answer is simple: don't worry. Our ancestors tried to do this for over 3,000 years and they didn't succeed.”

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