Overview
- The Science study analyzed 225 cat bones from 97 archaeological sites and generated 70 ancient nuclear genomes spanning roughly 11,000 years.
- European cats older than about 200 BCE carried Eurasian wildcat genomes, with the earliest confirmed domestic cat in Europe dated to 50–80 BCE at Mautern, Austria.
- Researchers link the rapid trans-Mediterranean dispersal to Roman commerce, with grain ships likely moving adept rodent hunters across ports and forts.
- Project Felix, led by Claudio Ottoni and funded by the European Research Council, will target more North African genomes to narrow the timing and location of domestication, with current signals pointing to the Tunisia–Morocco region.
- A companion Cell Genomics study finds millennia-long human ties to Asian leopard cats in China, a ~600-year gap in the record, and later arrivals of Felis catus by around 730 CE at Silk Road sites like Tongwan.