The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica). Its world distribution alongside people testifies to its profitable adaptation to anthropogenic environments. Uncertainty stays concerning whether or not home cats originated within the Levant, Egypt, or elsewhere within the pure vary of African wildcats. A global group of scientists led by College of Rome Tor Vergata researchers has now sequenced the genomes of 87 historical and fashionable cats. Their findings problem the generally held view of a Neolithic introduction of home cats to Europe, as an alternative putting their arrival a number of millennia later.
The genomes of historical cats from archaeological websites throughout Europe and Anatolia (circles within the map) revealed that home cats have been launched to Europe from North Africa beginning at 2,000 years in the past, a number of millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe; African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a definite wildcat inhabitants in Northwest Africa. Picture credit score: De Martino et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adt2642.
The home cat has an extended and sophisticated, albeit unsure, historical past.
Genetic research present that each one fashionable cats descended from the African wildcat, which is discovered right this moment in North Africa and the Close to East.
Nevertheless, sparse archaeological stays and the problem of distinguishing home from wild felines based mostly on bones alone have left main gaps in our understanding of the origin and unfold of early home cats.
“The timing and circumstances of cat domestication and dispersal stay unsure owing to the restricted variety of historical and fashionable genomes analyzed to date,” mentioned Dr. Marco de Martino from the College of Rome Tor Vergata and his colleagues.
“Questions stay concerning the pure distribution ranges of African and European wildcats up to now and their potential admixture.”
“A current research confirmed that historical gene movement would possibly confound the reconstruction of cat dispersal, significantly when based mostly on mtDNA.”
“The origin of African wildcat populations within the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica can also be elusive.”
“Current proof means that they don’t seem to be feral home cats however as an alternative signify a separate wildcat lineage.”
To handle these questions, the authors analyzed the genomes of 70 historical cats from archaeological websites throughout Europe and Anatolia and 17 fashionable wildcats from Italy (together with Sardinia), Bulgaria, and North Africa (Morocco and Tunisia).
Opposite to earlier research, they discovered that home cats almost certainly originated from North African wildcats, slightly than from the Levant, and that true home cats solely appeared in Europe and southwest Asia a number of thousand years after the Neolithic.
Earlier cats in Europe and Türkiye have been genetically European wildcats and mirror historical hybridization slightly than early domestication.
After being launched, North African home cats unfold quickly all through Europe, usually following Roman navy routes, reaching Britain by the first century CE.
What’s extra, the brand new research reveals that Sardinian wildcats — each historical and fashionable — are extra intently associated to North African wildcats than home cats, indicating that people introduced wildcats to islands the place they didn’t naturally happen, and they don’t seem to be descendants of a feral inhabitants of early home cats.
“We redefine the timing of cat dispersal by figuring out a minimum of two waves of introduction to Europe,” the scientists mentioned.
“The primary dispersal almost certainly featured wildcats from Northwest Africa that have been launched to Sardinia and based the island’s present-day wild inhabitants.”
“A definite and yet-unknown inhabitants in North Africa sourced a second dispersal not later than 2,000 years in the past that established the gene pool of recent home cats in Europe.”
The group’s findings seem this week within the journal Science.
_____
M. De Martino et al. 2025. The dispersal of home cats from North Africa to Europe round 2000 years in the past. Science 390 (6776); doi: 10.1126/science.adt2642
