House Cat Probably Reached Europe Only Around 2,000 Years Ago

A study in the journal "Science" now provides evidence that the modern domestic cat was only established around 2,000 years ago. The oldest representative of the then dominant line was identified by researchers in Mautern an der Donau (Lower Austria).

The team led by Marco de Martino and Claudio Ottoni from the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, which also included researchers from the University of Vienna and the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna, analyzed the DNA of 70 cats from around 11,000 years from Europe and Turkey and the genome of 17 animals currently living in Europe and North Africa as part of a large project funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The aim was to shed more light on the shared history of humans and cats.

North Africa or the Near East?

Clues to the possible beginning of cohabitation are provided by finds from the Neolithic Near East or from Cyprus from around 9,500 years ago or from Ancient Egypt around 6,000 years ago. Previous spread models based on genetic data suggested that the animals first explored the continent with early agricultural people advancing from present-day Anatolia into Europe and then received reinforcement from Egypt around 2,000 years ago, from where a second four-legged migration movement started.

The new investigations, based on the complete analysis of the preserved ancient DNA of cats living in historical times, point to an origin of modern domestic cats in wildcat populations (Felis lybica lybica) from North Africa, and not from the Near East. According to the new findings, the cats that lived 9,500 to 6,300 years ago in Southeast Europe and Turkey were descendants of European wildcats (Felis silvestris), whose ancestors presumably picked up genes from African wildcat colleagues also present in Anatolia. However, these genetically Felis silvestris-heavy cats are not the ancestors of today's domestic cats.

Cats: Across Europe with the Romans

According to the new investigation, these came much later: The first cat that fits into the genetic cluster "Felis lybica lybica/Felis catus" died around 2,200 years ago in Sardinia. Its DNA is astonishingly identical to that of today's wild cats on the Mediterranean island and shows the greatest similarity with African wildcats from Morocco.

The mainland European house cats, however, only arrived around 200 years later - and again more from western North Africa, according to the study authors. Then it happened quickly, because by the year 100 AD, remains of an animal from this genetic group were found in Great Britain. The oldest evidence of an ancestor of modern house cats found in the study comes from Mautern in Lower Austria, and it lived around the time of Christ's birth.

Historical Austro-Cats Provide Insights

Its location - in Mautern, there was a regionally significant Roman fortification with an attached settlement (Vicus) at that time - also indicates that the Romans and their road networks were the key to rapid spread in Europe, as the researchers explain. In addition to Mautern, the DNA of cat remains from various eras from Bernhardsthal, Traismauer, and Petronell-Carnuntum (all in Lower Austria) as well as from Salzburg City was analyzed.

The authors of the work now assume that modern house cats arrived in Europe much later than previously thought. However, according to a perspective article by Jonathan Losos from Washington University in St. Louis (USA), this is contradicted by numerous depictions of animals obviously kept as house cats, especially from present-day Greece and Italy. These are up to 3,700 years old.

Researcher Points Out Genetic Gap and Weakness in Study

The fact that no earlier evidence of domestication could be found in the study may be due to a lull in genetically usable samples between 4,000 and 2,000 years ago, writes Losos. For example, it is hardly possible to extract usable DNA from the numerous Egyptian cat mummies. Accordingly, the house cat lineage could have appeared much earlier in southern Europe - but has so far remained genetically undiscovered.

The study is seen as a piece of a larger project that traces the difficult-to-research domestication of the cat, according to the perspective article. Following this scientifically is particularly difficult because the genetic difference between domesticated cats and their wild-living ancestors and relatives is much smaller than that between dogs and wolves.

(APA/Red)

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