Scientists are still unsure about a lot of things regarding the early history of how cats were domesticated by humans. However, the recent discovery of old bones from 5,300 years ago may help shed some light on the subject.
According to a recent excavation in China, cats have lived alongside humans in a semi-domesticated state as early as 5,300 years ago. The recent discovery can help answer many questions that both scientists and cat lovers alike have been asking about the most popular pet in the world today.
The findings of the dig were recently published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or TPNAS for short. According to the researchers working on the project, cats were indeed domesticated after early humans began the agricultural revolution thousands of years ago. Evidence from the dig also confirms that cats were domesticated much later compared to dogs. While the new findings have brought a number of interesting facts to the surface, the researchers were also puzzled about the location of the excavation.
Washington University zooarchaeologist Fiona Marshall expressed her surprise after finding evidence of feline domestication in an ancient Chinese village. This is due to the fact that all modern cats living today are descendants from a single subspecies of a Middle Eastern wildcat called Felis silvestris lybica.
Further research on the bones found in China will be conducted to confirm whether the ancient Chinese cats were also descendants from the same ancestor as other modern felines. This is an important step of the project since the location of the dig in Shaanxi province, China, is far removed from the established natural range of F. s. lybica. The Shaanxi remains may have brought to light more questions than answers for the scientists involved in the project. Did traders import the cats into Ancient China or were they descendants of a different species of wildcat found in the region? DNA analysis of the bone specimens will be able to provide concrete answers to these questions.
