The domestic cat (Felis catus) would only arrive in Europe About 2000 years agonot in the Neolithic as had been hypothesized for years. This is the conclusion reached by a new study published in Science in which a team of researchers analyzed 87 ancient and modern genomes. Genetic reconstruction has also found that their origin must be sought in the cat populations of North Africa, with which the analyzed samples have an enormous genetic affinity, rather than with those of eastern areas, such as Egypt, as has often been thought. Ancient European cats from the Neolithic have actually been identified as European wild cats (Felis silvestris) and it seems that the first real cat with characteristics from Felis lybica lybica (the wild African, ancestor of the domestic) appears alone about 2,200 years ago in Sardinia. It was then a second, more recent African wave that brought the genetic heritage of modern domestic cats. The study tells us a story of feline migrations, of ancient contacts between animal populations, and of how Mediterranean civilizations – Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans – played a key role in the spread of our cats.
The study on the DNA of the domestic cat in Europe: ancient genetics
One of the problems in trying to clarify the history of cats is that so far we have had few ancient cat genomes and, almost always, analyzes have focused only on Mitochondrial DNAwhich is transmitted only through the maternal line. As useful as it is, tells only part of the story: to really understand the origin of feline populations we need to also look at the rest of the genome, as they did in this work.
The researchers analyzed 70 ancient genomesfrom archaeological sites in Europe and Anatolia, dating back to 11,000 years agoAnd 17 modern genomes of wild cats from Italy, Bulgaria, Morocco and Tunisia. The aim was to distinguish between:
- Felis silvestristhe European wild cat;
- Felis lybica lybicathe North African and Middle Eastern wild cat, ancestor of domestic cats.
THE Felis silvestris Neolithic Europeans were not domesticated
One of the most important discoveries concerns feline remains found at sites between Anatolia and the Balkans, dating back to the period Neolithic and that they had been identified as domestic cats because they carried a particular type of mitochondrial DNA. But when the authors analyzed the nuclear genome – that is, the complete set of DNA – they discovered that these animals were neither Felis lybica lybica nor domestic cats, but European wild cats (F. silvestris) who had crossed ancient wild Africans. Let’s clarify: when we talk about domestic cats we are referring to the species Felis catusit is not just a way of indicating a cat that is on our sofa.
Basically, those ancient cats show traces of spontaneous crossings between wild specieswhich occurred long before actual domestication. It’s a type of mixing that could even date back to the end of the last one ice age. Precisely this ancient cross clarifies why the DNA of the mitochondria and that of the nucleus tell two different stories. It is a known situation, called “mitonuclear discordance”: happens when male and female hereditary lines do not follow the same path over time.
The bottom line is that no domestic cats (F. catus) appeared in Europe before the 1st millennium BC
The first documented arrival is in Sardinia, around 2,200 years ago
The oldest European cat with genetic characteristics from Felis lybica lybica – qtherefore the first potentially “domestic” – was found in Sardinia. The champion is called GSA01 and comes from Genoni’s site. It was dated between 200 and 50 BC
By analyzing its genome, researchers saw that this cat is closely related to the Current Sardinian wild catsand that the latter form a genetic group very close to a wild Moroccan. This suggests that a feline lineage of North African origin has arrived in Sardinia at least 2,000 years agoprobably brought by Phoenicians, Punics or Romans. These cats may not yet be “domestic” in the modern sense, but wild Africans that lived near human settlements.
The second wave is the decisive one, because from the 1st century BC – 1st century AD numerous cats appear in Europe that have the Typical gene pool of modern domestic cats and a strong affinity with the wild animals of North West Africaespecially from Tunisia.
The oldest of these is a cat from the site of Mautern, Austria, dated between 50 BC and 80 AD. Cats with this genetic profile later appear in Italy, at Roman military sites along the Danube, in Britain (one specimen dated 24–123 AD), and throughout Europe from the Middle Ages onwards. Everything indicates that the Romans, through ports, armies and trade routeshave played a central role in the spread of the domestic cat.
Why North Africa and not Egypt?
Domestic cats were traditionally thought to have come from Egypt, as many Egyptian feline mummies show a particular type of mitochondrial DNA, which was also shared by several Roman cats analyzed in this study. However, the Nuclear DNA tells another story: ancient domestic cats have a stronger bond with Tunisian wild animals than with the Levantine ones, that is, coming from the eastern part of the Mediterranean, as had been believed until now.
This does not exclude Egypt as a center of domestication, but suggests the possibility of multiple North African populations involved. To fully confirm the provenance, they are still missing ancient Egyptian genomeswhich are currently not available in the study.
What the genetic data say about the interaction between wild and domestic animals
The study also analyses How much European wild cats and introduced domestic cats have mixed over time. The authors calculated the mixing percentages using genetic statisticsthat is, techniques that measure DNA exchanges between populations. The results showed that in the ancient populations of Anatolia and the Balkans, the influence of Felis lybica lybica varies between 7% and 34%. In Roman domestic cats, however, the percentage of wild European DNA is very low (0–6%), but in the Middle Ages it increased until 15% in some European areas, probably due to the increase in contact between wild and domestic animals. The only regions in which this mixing is not detected, according to the study data, are the Iberian Peninsula and Sardinia.
