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Cats May Have Been Domesticated Twice (sciencemag.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the pet-animals dept.

sciencehabit writes: Cats may have been domesticated twice, once in Turkey around 10,000 years ago, and again in Egypt, thousands of years later. That's the conclusion of a new genetic analysis of more than 200 ancient cats, including DNA extracted from Egyptian mummies. The scientists found evidence for an exodus of cats into the wider world from both ancient Turkey and ancient Egypt, but that these two waves of cats sported different genetic signatures. Whether or not the ancient Egyptians independently domesticated cats, their massive breeding programs appear to have further tamed the feline, turning cats from territorial and antisocial creatures into the lovable furballs we know today.

10 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Domesticated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cats have never been domesticated by humans. They domesticated us, and I for one welcome our feline overlords.

    1. Re:Domesticated? by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Exactly. Turkey was just a trial run, after the analyses was done and the kinks worked out they really went for it in Egypt. All in the name of world domination! They succeeded, where many an evil mastermind has utterly failed.

    2. Re:Domesticated? by OpenSourced · · Score: 5, Funny

      But it was done twice!. We can try now for the third one, see if this time it sticks!

      --
      Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
    3. Re:Domesticated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      As they say about pet ownership: "Dogs have owners, cats have staff."

    4. Re:Domesticated? by whitroth · · Score: 3, Funny

      Right. A better way of looking at the story is this:

      Dogs, we got together with 15? 20? 30? kyears ago, and what happened? We chased game, hung out, and licked or scratched our private parts.

      Then cats figured out how to domesticate us, and the next thing you know, we have agriculture and towns, then cities.

      See? That's why we're here....

  2. Waves observation by billybob2001 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...these two waves of cats sported different genetic signatures.

    Don't forget that cats exist as both waves and particles!

  3. Civilization by bestweasel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Turkey around 10,000 years ago:
    Well Tiddles, I don't know about you but a lot of us have had enough of this abuse, kicking us when any little thing goes wrong, tormenting us for their sport, even murdering our poor children, so we're heading out to the desert until they've evolved a bit.

    Egypt, thousands of years later:
    As you all know, some members of the exploration committee went in to town - and let me tell you we were all a bit scared after those tales we heard as kittens - spent a few weeks cautiously interacting with the humans and trying to teach them our language, generally being friendly and helping to put food on the table and you know what? They treated us like gods.

    1. Re:Civilization by cfc-12 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Turkey around 10,000 years ago: Well Tiddles, I don't know about you but a lot of us have had enough of this abuse, kicking us when any little thing goes wrong, tormenting us for their sport, even murdering our poor children, so we're heading out to the desert until they've evolved a bit.

      Egypt, thousands of years later: As you all know, some members of the exploration committee went in to town - and let me tell you we were all a bit scared after those tales we heard as kittens - spent a few weeks cautiously interacting with the humans and trying to teach them our language, generally being friendly and helping to put food on the table and you know what? They treated us like gods.

      Austria, 1935:
      What am I doing in this box?

  4. Re:Who domesticated whom? by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think it's fairer to say that the intelligence range of cats and dogs can widely vary. I've known some dogs that were dumber than a bag of hammers.

    Okay, story time. One of the cats we had when I was younger was a Siamese that we got from a shelter. If she had a previous owner, that owner never let her outside. Well, all of our cats have been indoor/outdoor cats, so we didn't see any problem letting her outside after she had acclimatized to her new home.

    No, she didn't run away. She was, quite frankly, amazed at the outside. Kind of a "Oh, wait, there's more?"

    Anyway, a while after we got her, she's outside, sunning herself on the front walk when a neighbor's Golden Retriever sees her. Now, this dog was a very pretty dog (as Golden Retrievers tend to be), but it was so dumb it's brain might as well have been a flowchart.

    So, it sees the cat, and in it's doggie brain, the only possible response is "run at cat, barking madly" followed by "WHEN cat runs, chase it."

    Not, "IF cat runs". "WHEN".

    Well, of course, the cat had no idea what a dog even was, and being the most chill cat ever, waited until the dog came to a screeching halt, still barking, to get up, sniff the dog's face, do a little kitty shrug, and lie back down. The dog was not important to the cat.

    The dog wandered off back to it's own yard. It had no concept of what to do when the cat didn't run.

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  5. Stubborn by sycodon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cats are just so stubborn that they HAD to be domesticated twice.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.