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Viking cats: Travelling the high seas helped felines conquer the world
abc.net.au ^

Posted on 09/24/2016 3:23:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin

A study into ancient feline DNA found the emergence of agriculture and boat travel were catalysts — pun intended — for the domestication and proliferation of house cats.

The researchers even found evidence of one specific lineage at an ancient Viking site.

The large-scale study, which was presented at the International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology at Oxford University and reported by the journal Nature, was the first of its kind.

Thanks to a 9,500-year-old human burial from Cyprus that also contained the remains of a cat, we know that some form of relationship between cats and humans stretches back at least this far.

But as Eva-Marie Geigl of Institut Jacques Monod, one of the researchers, said, we know little else about how cats were domesticated.

(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: vikingkittens
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1 posted on 09/24/2016 3:23:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7873678-3x2-940x627.jpg


2 posted on 09/24/2016 3:24:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Viking Cat Fritters is still a very popular dish in many countries visited by Vikings.


3 posted on 09/24/2016 3:25:31 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: BenLurkin

Beware Viking kitties!
4 posted on 09/24/2016 3:27:46 PM PDT by neefer (Because you can't starve us out and you can't make us run.)
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To: BenLurkin

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_cat


5 posted on 09/24/2016 3:28:10 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: BenLurkin

6 posted on 09/24/2016 3:29:01 PM PDT by PROCON ("Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!")
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To: BenLurkin
Cats are domesticated!?
7 posted on 09/24/2016 3:32:20 PM PDT by The Westerner (Will Free Republic exist when ICANN controls the web?)
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To: The Westerner

Cats are not domesticated.
Cats are domesticators (of inferior species like humans)


8 posted on 09/24/2016 3:33:37 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero.)
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To: Snickering Hound

Excellent!


9 posted on 09/24/2016 3:35:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Ancestors of Maine coon cats.


10 posted on 09/24/2016 3:37:28 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: BenLurkin

The reason for cats being with humans is simple.

They were natural hunters, still are as anyone with an indoor/outdoor cat can attest to. When humans started early agriculture having ready stores of grain attracts rodents, ie kitty cat food.

Food chain; grain, mice, cats. See, we’ve been working for cats all along. They have us properly domesticated.


11 posted on 09/24/2016 3:37:58 PM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark (The American media: We do what the Soviet media did without the guns to our head.)
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To: BenLurkin
My paternal grandfather ran away from Ireland before 1900, joining the merchant marine and traveled the world. Still had some sailing vessels then as I recall him saying. All had cats on board, for rat patrol no doubt.

Dad said they always had cats at home growing up, grandfather loved them. Took him a while to warm to dogs.

12 posted on 09/24/2016 3:42:23 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: BenLurkin

13 posted on 09/24/2016 3:58:44 PM PDT by Hugin (Conservatism without Nationalism is a fraud.)
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To: BenLurkin

Felines invented catamarans. (That’s why they call them that.) They discovered Catalonia and Catistrono. (Why do you think the swallows leave? They call them swallows because that’s what happens to them.) If you read the tuna cat food it says, “a cat’s natural food.” They fish with one paw in the water. Then, there was a catastrophic storm. It was a cat 9. After that cats gave up the sea, but left us with a system for describing the severity of storms.

Incidentally, here is a fun fact to amaze your friends. Catatonic is a condition caused by catnip and beer.


14 posted on 09/24/2016 4:03:33 PM PDT by Gen.Blather (`)
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To: faithhopecharity

When you feed and shelter a dog it thinks “Wow. You do all this for me! You’re a God!’’. You feed and shelter a cat and it thinks “You do all this for me, I’m a God!’’.


15 posted on 09/24/2016 4:17:50 PM PDT by jmacusa ("Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more!''-- Popeye The Sailorman.)
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To: doorgunner69

“Dad said they always had cats at home growing up, grandfather loved them. Took him a while to warm to dogs.”

But,but what about Great Dane tea cup puppy love dogs?? Great to share cold nights with.


16 posted on 09/24/2016 4:19:58 PM PDT by libstripper (oHillary is willing to risk her own life to protect her secretive nature. She would rather go to her)
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To: jmacusa

Yes!! Wonderful! Thanks


17 posted on 09/24/2016 4:27:22 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero.)
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To: BenLurkin
Cats were worshipped as gods by the Egyptians. Cats have never forgotten this, as evidenced by their behavior.
18 posted on 09/24/2016 4:40:19 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney (,)
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To: PittsburghAfterDark

I’ve read that cats consider us to be useful domestic animals.


19 posted on 09/24/2016 5:17:42 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: BenLurkin
We just need the money," she said.

No you don't. It's not that complicated. Humans toss out food scraps or they have grains for their livestock which bring in rodents. Cats wander up and see free food. They associate food with humans. They move in with humans and don't leave their easily had food source.

Same principle aboard ships. Cats kept the rodents, bugs and other creepy crawlies in check for the humans. A win-win.

20 posted on 09/24/2016 5:50:51 PM PDT by bgill (From the CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola")
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