Genome study reveals milestone in history of cat domestication [View all]

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Thu Nov 27, 2025, 09:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

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.

Domestic 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.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/science/genome-study-reveals-milestone-history-cat-domestication-2025-11-27/

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The earliest remains of a domestic cat that they found were at the site of a Roman fort on the Danube. (Cat remains from earlier eras were of wildcats.)

How fitting. Imperial cats...