By Will Dunham(Reuters) -Whether they are a Siamese, Persian, Maine Coon, or Domestic Shorthair, there are hundreds of millions of cats living with people around the world. But despite their popularity as pets, the history of cat domestication has remained difficult for scientists to decipher.A new genome study is providing some insight into the matter by determining the timing of a key milestone in feline domestication – the introduction of domestic cats into Europe from North Africa.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDomestic cats pounced into Europe roughly 2,000 years ago in early imperial Roman times, the researchers found, probably thanks to maritime trade. Some of these furry trailblazers may have been brought by sailors to hunt mice on ships that plied the Mediterranean carrying grain from the fertile fields of Egypt to ports serving Rome and other cities in the sprawling Roman Empire.The findings contradict a long-held idea that domestication occurred in prehistoric times, perhaps 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, as farmers from the ancient Near East and Middle East first moved into Europe, bringing cats with them.”We show that the earliest domestic cat genomes in Europe are found from the Roman imperial period onwards,” starting in the first century AD, said paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, lead author of the study published on Thursday in the journal Science.The study used genetic data from feline remains from 97 archaeological sites across Europe and the Near East as well as from present-day cats. The researchers analyzed 225 bones of cats – domestic and wild – ranging from about 10,000 years ago to the 19th century AD, and generated 70 ancient feline genomes.Adve …
