Journal
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
Volume 1, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0139
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Funding
- IAP program (BELSPO)
- KU Leuven BOF Centre of Excellence Financing on CAS
- CNRS
- University Paris Diderot, ARS
- University Paris Diderot
- 'Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale' [DGE20111123014]
- 'Region He-de-France' [1.1015901]
- FWO mobility program [V4.519.11N, K2.197.14N, K2.057.14N]
- German Research Foundation (DFG) [PE424/10-1, PE424/10-2]
- ERC grant [206148]
- UK NERC Radiocarbon Facility grant [NF/2012/2/4]
- Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, UEFISCDI [PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-1015, PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0519]
- National Science Foundation [BCS1123091]
- Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/J502716/1]
- Institut Jacques Monod and Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris
- European Research Council (ERC) [206148] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
- AHRC [AH/J502716/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/J502716/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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The cat has long been important to human societies as a pest-control agent, object of symbolic value and companion animal, but little is known about its domestication process and early anthropogenic dispersal. Here we show, using ancient DNA analysis of geographically and temporally widespread archaeological cat remains, that both the Near Eastern and Egyptian populations of Felis silvestris lybica contributed to the gene pool of the domestic cat at different historical times. While the cat's worldwide conquest began during the Neolithic period in the Near East, its dispersal gained momentum during the Classical period, when the Egyptian cat successfully spread throughout the Old World. The expansion patterns and ranges suggest dispersal along human maritime and terrestrial routes of trade and connectivity. A coat-colour variant was found at high frequency only after the Middle Ages, suggesting that directed breeding of cats occurred later than with most other domesticated animals.
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