How We Domesticated Cats (Twice)

The History of Domesticated Cats

This video explores the history of domesticated cats, tracing their origins to wild cats called Felis silvestris and discussing the process of domestication.

The Origins of Domesticated Cats

• French archaeologists discovered that Cyprus had a large population of cats, including both pets and feral cats.

• Excavating an ancient settlement on Cyprus, they found the grave of a man buried alongside offerings and an 8-month-old cat. This burial represented some of the oldest known evidence of human/cat companionship anywhere in the world.

• Scientists are still trying to determine when humans first began domesticating cats and who their ancestors were. Today's domesticated cat is its own species, known as Felis catus, which can be traced back to wildcats called Felis silvestris lybica.

Wild vs. Domesticated Cats

• African wildcats are the direct ancestor of all domesticated cats today. They don't look very different from their descendants but have slightly larger bodies and lack color variations in their coats.

• Wildcats are solitary creatures that don't have the same social structure as other animals like wolves. Scientists think that the domestication process for cats was probably different from other animals.

The Process of Domestication

• A species is considered "domesticated" when it becomes genetically modified through human-influenced breeding and reliant on humans for food, shelter or other needs.

• There are three pathways to domestication: the prey pathway, the directed pathway, and the commensal pathway. Horses and beasts of burden were most likely domesticated through the directed pathway.

• The commensal pathway involves wild animals being attracted to human settlements.

The Domestication of Cats

This section discusses the domestication of cats and how it has affected their physical appearance, behavior, and relationship with humans.

Domestication Process

• Isotopic analysis of cat remains from 5,600 years ago in northwestern China revealed that cats were eating mice that were feeding on stored millet, providing a useful service for human villagers.

• Domestication has made house cats smaller than their ancestors and resulted in new varieties in coat color and patterning. However, domestication did not change the morphology of cats as much as it did for dogs.

• By the 19th century, people started to selectively breed for more variation in markings and colors.

Genetic Similarities

• Modern cats maintain more genetic and behavioral similarities with their wild ancestors than most other domesticated animals do.

• Wildcats are thought to have been domesticated twice - once in southwest Asia about 10,000 years ago and again in Egypt about 3,500 years ago.

Evidence of Domestication

• Archaeological evidence supports multiple points of domestication. For example, six burials containing two adult cats and four kittens were uncovered at the site of Hierakonpolis in Egypt dating back to between 3,600 and 3,800 years ago.

• Ancient Romans kept felines as pets based on various artworks like mosaics that show cats in more domestic settings.

Origin Story

• People from southwest Asia brought the subspecies of cat that was the ancestor of our domesticated cats to Cyprus during the Early Holocene Epoch possibly 11,000 years ago.

• Cats have taken over the world with an estimated overall population of 600 million.

Eonites and Konstantin Haase Studio

In this section, the speaker thanks the Eonites for their support and invites others to join. The speaker also expresses gratitude for being in the Konstantin Haase Studio.

• The speaker thanks Patrick Seifert, Jake Hart, Jon Davison Ng, and Steve for their support as Eontologists.

• The audience is invited to join the Eonites by pledging their support on patreon.com/eons.

• The speaker expresses gratitude for being in the Konstantin Haase Studio.