Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 22 June 2017

Science Says: DNA shows early spread of cats in human world

By MALCOLM RITTER which fits with other evi-
AP Science Writer dence that the tabby cat
NEW YORK (AP) — Long be- markings became com-
fore cats became the dar- mon by the 1700s and that
lings of Facebook and You- people started breeding
Tube, they spread through cats for their appearance
the ancient human world. in the 1800s.
A DNA study reached back That’s late in the domesti-
thousands of years to track cation of cats, in contrast
that conquest and found to horses, which were bred
evidence of two major for their appearance early
dispersals from the Middle on, Geigl said.
East, in which people evi- Most of the study focused
dently took cats with them. on the ancient dispersals
Genetic signatures the fe- of cats. In the DNA samples
lines had on those journeys analyzed, one genetic sig-
are still seen in most mod- nature found first in the
ern-day breeds. Asian portion of Turkey —
Researchers analyzed DNA and perhaps once carried
from 209 ancient cats as old by some Fertile Crescent
as 9,000 years from Europe, cats — showed up more
Africa and Asia, including than 6,000 years ago in Bul-
some ancient Egyptian cat In a Friday, Nov. 14, 2014 file photo, Elsa, a kitten, recovers at the Denver Dumb Friends League garia.
mummies. animal shelter, in Denver. That indicates cats had
“They are direct witnesses been taken there by boat
of the situation in the past,” eastern shore of the Medi- about 3,500 years ago in spread of specific cat DNA with the first farmers colo-
said Eva-Maria Geigl of the terranean Sea and land Egypt, where paintings of- markers over long distanc- nizing Europe, Geigl said. It
Jacques Monod Institute in around the Tigris and Eu- ten placed them beneath es through time, a sign that also appeared more than
Paris. She and colleagues phrates rivers. They stored chairs. That shows by that people had taken cats with 5,000 years ago in Roma-
also looked at 28 modern grain, which drew rodents, time, “the cat makes its them. Results were released nia, as well as around 3,000
feral cats from Bulgaria and which in turn attracted way to the household,” Monday by the journal Na- years ago in Greece.
east Africa. wild cats. Animal remains said Geigl. ture Ecology & Evolution. A second genetic signa-
It’s the latest glimpse into in trash heaps might have But the overall domestica- The study “strengthens and ture, first seen in Egypt, had
the complicated story of attracted them too. Over tion process has been hard refines previous work,” said reached Europe between
domesticated cats. They time, these wild felines for scientists to track, in part Carlos Driscoll of the Wildlife the first and fifth centuries,
are descendants of wild an- adapted to this man-made because fossils skeletons Institute of India. The exten- as shown by a sample from
cestors that learned to live environment and got used don’t reveal whether a cat sive sampling of cat DNA Bulgaria. It was found in a
with people and became to hanging around people. was wild or domesticated. going back so far in time is seventh-century sample
relatively tame — though Previous study had found a It’s easier to distinguish unprecedented, he said. from a Viking trading port
some cat owners would say cat buried alongside a hu- dogs, our first domesticat- Researchers also looked in northern Europe, and
that nowadays, they don’t man some 9,500 years ago ed animal, from their wolf for a genetic variant that an eighth-century sample
always seem enthusiastic in Cyprus, an island without ancestors. Dogs evolved produces the blotchy coat from Iran.
about our company. any native population of from wolves that had be- pattern typical of modern- The dispersal of the cats
The domestication process felines. That indicates the gun to associate with peo- day domestic cats, rather across the Mediterranean
may have begun around cat was brought by boat ple even before farming than the tiger-like stripes was probably encour-
10,000 years ago when and it had some special began, perhaps drawn by seen in their wild cousins. aged by their usefulness
people settled in the Fertile relationship to that person, the food the humans left It showed up more often in controlling rodents and
Crescent, the arch-shaped researchers say. behind. in samples from after the other pests on ships, the re-
region that includes the Cats were clearly tame by The new study tracked the year 1300 than earlier ones, searchers said.q