Science consists of asserting something as universal truth. Until someone comes along and proves otherwise, of course. Galileo did it, and so have some researchers who have dared to turn everything we thought we knew about our most affectionate furry friends upside down.
Questioning this “marriage of convenience”
We know perfectly well how humans were able to domesticate dogs. From wolves more terrifying than those in fairy tales to Pomeranians. With cats, we also thought we knew the exact point in history when we began to domesticate them. However, everything points to us being wrong.
The classic theory was along the lines of a marriage of convenience. And it was a very convincing theory. It was believed that it all began when humans started storing grain, around 9,500 BC. In theory, wild cats from the Middle East would have approached the grain stores to hunt rodents. And our ancestors, instead of chasing them away, saw them as allies. The discovery of a cat buried alongside a human in Cyprus (7,500 BC) has been cited for years as definitive proof of this theory.
However, new analysis led by geneticists Claudio Ottoni and Greger Larson, published in the journal Science, shows that those early felines had nothing to do with your cat. The one that is probably judging you harshly for looking at your phone instead of filling its food bowl. Everything points to the fact that those cats from the Middle East were not the ancestors of our modern cats.
These researchers have sequenced the DNA of 225 archaeological cat remains (dating back up to 10,000 years). During the process, they discovered that the cats present in Europe and the Middle East in ancient times were genetically European wildcats (Felis silvestris).
What does that mean? Well, it means that we need to qualify the classic belief. That mutually beneficial relationship between cats and humans through granaries did exist. But it left no trace in the modern population. What the study suggests is that these cats were probably tame animals, but not the founding line of the domestic cat.
Rewriting the history of cats
Fortunately, the study doesn’t stop there. Ottoni and Larson have found the true genetic “ground zero” of cats. To the surprise of the scientific community, domestic cats are a much more recent phenomenon. Their roots lie in North Africa. And, in case you hadn’t thought about it today, the spread of this animal was thanks to the Roman Empire.
According to these researchers, all modern domestic cats are mainly descended from the Felis lybica subspecies (African wildcat), and not from their European or Asian relatives. If you’ve been thinking for years that your pet is feral, this study is also on your side, as the genetic markers of full domestication did not appear en masse in Europe until just 2,000 years ago. In evolutionary terms, that’s practically nothing.
But there’s more. We promised you your daily dose of Roman Empire, and we’re not going to end this article until we give it to you. The study, as we said, says that the North African cat is the father of all cats. It identifies Mediterranean civilizations as the vehicle for this “recent and rapid” expansion.
Civilizations such as the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians (Carthage) were the first to transport these cats from North Africa to strategic islands such as Sicily and Sardinia to protect ship supplies. Later, the Roman Empire would globalize the cat. The Romans kept cats in their military camps. Not to listen to their soothing purrs, but to protect grain from rats, thus preventing the legionnaires from getting sick.
China also had its own “cat”
There is one more point in the study that is worth mentioning. And that is that there is another fascinating evolutionary story in China. Although, in this case, it was unsuccessful.
About 5,000 years ago, Chinese farming communities also came to the same conclusion as the Romans and our Middle Eastern ancestors. They lived alongside felines, but these were not Felis catus either, but leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis). A different species of wild cat.
Just like you with your pet, the Chinese were unable to fully domesticate them. And just 1,300 years ago, the Felis lybica lineage we mentioned earlier arrived in China from the Mediterranean regions via the Silk Road. As these animals were more domesticated, the practice of living with leopard cats came to an end.
What is clear from this study (and from what we knew before) is that in all possible multiverses, humans were going to end up accepting cats as pets. Although in the end, it may be they who domesticate us.