Contrary to the long-held belief that European domestic cats were introduced from the Levant 6,000 years ago, a new study shows that their spread actually originated in North Africa around 2,000 years ago. The findings, based on ancient nuclear DNA, reveal a genealogy shaped by a «gradual convergence» process. «The African wildcat, drawn to the rodents infesting grain stores, settled near early human settlements where it found food and shelter. Humans quickly understood the benefit of keeping a predator of pests nearby», explain the authors of the study, published in the journal Science. Because bones alone cannot reliably differentiate a domesticated cat from a wild one, researchers turned to ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, which provided concrete evidence and helped reconstruct a lineage that had remained unclear for decades. Genetic comparisons show a much stronger affinity with North African wildcats than with those from the Levant, enabling scientists to identify «the genetic foundation of the modern European domestic cat». For the study, researchers analyzed the genomes of 17 modern cats from Italy, Bulgaria, Tunisia, and Morocco, along with those of 70 ancient cats dating from 11,000 to 200 years ago, recovered from archaeological sites across Europe and the Middle East. Their results confirm that domestic cats (Felis catus) are more closely related to the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica), which still inhabits its region of origin today.
