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Driscoll, C.A.; Menotti-Raymond, M.; Roca, A.L.; Hupe, K.; Johnson, W.E.; Geffen, E.; Harley, E.; Delibes, M.; Pontier, D.; Kitchener, A.C.; Yamaguchi, N.; O'Brien, S.J.; Macdonald, D.
The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication
2007 Science express: 1-6
The world's domestic cats carry patterns of sequence variation in their genome that reflect a history of domestication and breed development. A genetic assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors (_Felis silvestris silvestris _- European wildcat;_ F. s. lybica_ - Near Eastern wildcat; _F. s. ornata_ - Central Asian wildcat; _F. s. cafra _- sub Saharan African wildcat; and _F. s. bieti_ - Chinese desert cat) indicated that each wild group represents a distinctive subspecies of _Felis silvestris_. Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, likely coincident with agricultural village development in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendents were subsequently transported across the world by human assistance.
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