Genome Study Reveals Milestone In History Of Cat Domestication

Whether it’s a Siamese, Persian, Maine Coon, or Domestic Shorthair, there are hundreds of millions of cats living with humans all over the world. But despite their popularity as pets, the history of cat domestication is still an elusive issue for scientists.

A new genome study provides some insight by identifying the timing of the introduction of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe, a major turning point in cat domestication.

Domestic cats arrived in Europe during the early empire about 2,000 years ago, possibly thanks to maritime trade, researchers found. Some of these furry pioneers may have been brought by sailors to hunt mice on ships traveling the Mediterranean carrying grain from the fertile fields of Egypt to ports serving Rome and other cities of the expanding Roman Empire.

The findings contradict the long-held idea that domestication occurred in prehistoric times, perhaps 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, when farmers from the ancient Near East and Middle East first moved to Europe and brought cats with them.

“We show that the oldest domestic cat genomes in Europe were found from the Roman imperial period, starting in the 1st century AD,” said paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, lead author of the study published Thursday in the journal Science.

Genetic data obtained from cat remains from 97 archaeological sites in Europe and the Near East and from modern-day cats were used in the study. Researchers analyzed 225 domestic and wild cat bones dating from about 10,000 years ago to the 19th century AD and created 70 ancient cat genomes.

Researchers have found that cat remains from prehistoric sites in Europe belong to wild cats, not early domestic cats.

Dogs were the first animal domesticated by humans and are descendants of an ancient wolf population distinct from modern wolves. The domestic cat came later and is a descendant of the African wildcat.

“The introduction of the domestic cat to Europe is significant because it marks an important period in their long-term relationship with humans. Cats are not just another species arriving on a new continent. They are an animal deeply integrated into human societies, economies and even belief systems,” said Marco De Martino, paleogeneticist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and co-author of the study. he said.

Genome data identified two cat introductions from North Africa to Europe. About 2,200 years ago, humans brought wildcats from northwestern Africa to the island of Sardinia, where today’s wildcat population descended from these migrants.

But these were not domestic cats. It was a separate dispersal from North Africa about two centuries later that formed the genetic basis of the modern domestic cat in Europe.

According to Bea De Cupere, a zoo archaeologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and co-author of the study, the study’s findings show that there was no single core region in the domestication of cats, but that various regions and cultures in North Africa played a role.

“The timing of the genetic waves from North Africa coincides with periods of strong intensification of trade around the Mediterranean. Cats probably traveled as effective mouse catchers on grain ships, but they probably also traveled as valuable animals of religious and symbolic importance,” De Cupere said. he said.

Cats, for example, were important in ancient Egypt, whose pantheon included cat gods and where royalty kept domestic cats, sometimes mummifying them for burial in ornate coffins.

The ancient Roman army, with its outposts and retinues dotted throughout Europe, played an instrumental role in the spread of domestic cats across the continent, as evidenced by cat remains found in Roman military camps.

The oldest domestic cat in Europe identified in the study (genetically similar to today’s domestic cats) dates back to around 3000 B.C. in the Austrian town of Mautern, the site of a Roman fort on the Danube River. It was dated between 50 and 80 AD.

But the study does not resolve the timing and location of the first domestication of cats.

“Domestication of cats is a complex process, and what we can say now is the timing of the introduction of domestic cats from North Africa into Europe. We can’t really say before and where,” Ottoni said.