Posted on 12/22/2025 12:07:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv
[snip] We generated a genomic time transect spanning the past 11,000 years and found that cats previously identified as carrying a F. l. lybica mtDNA clade from Neolithic and Chalcolithic southeast Europe and Anatolia, dated between 9500 and 6300 years ago, were F. silvestris wildcats whose ancestors hybridized with F. l. lybica. Ancient genomes revealed an increasing trend of African wildcat ancestry ranging from 9 to 34% eastward, from Bulgaria to central Anatolia.
The earliest cat belonging to the genetic cluster of as F. l. lybica and F. catus in Europe originates from the site of Genoni, in Sardinia (Italy), and is dated to ~2200 years ago. This cat is genetically similar to present-day wildcats in Sardinia, and they all appear to be closely related to a F. l. lybica wildcat from Morocco. All other archaeological cats from Europe and Anatolia included in the cluster of F. l. lybica and F. catus are dated from ~2000 years ago onward. They possessed the typical gene pool of modern domestic cats and shared more affinities with modern African wildcats than with their Levantine relatives. Their rapid dispersal across the Mediterranean in the past 2000 years marked a demographic expansion recorded in their maternal ancestries...
The first dispersal most likely featured wildcats from Northwest Africa that were introduced to Sardinia and founded the island's present-day wild population. A distinct and yet-unknown population in North Africa sourced a second dispersal not later than 2000 years ago that established the gene pool of modern domestic cats in Europe.
...domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at ~2 thousand years ago (kya), several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe. African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa.
(Excerpt) Read more at science.org ...
Completely understand but I have to brag…just a few hours ago I got to pet a serval (an African cat about the size of a whippet). She was extremely active!
Russian Blues are the best cats that were ever bred. I miss my Russian Blue princess.
How this momma cat wound up as a stray, probably dumped by the road down the hillside ... six hundred feet down and wandered up our dirt road, approx a bid over a mile. Beautiful dark charcoal color, not a spot of white.
now
now
some of us crazy cat ladies prefer bourbon and water
🐱
So the leopard cat locals lost out to cheap African imports.
Han China had other things to worry about. The Chinese emperor tried to make alliance with the Roman Empire in an effort to deal with Parthian support for Chinese provinces in Central Asia, but that failed, and the various plagues that afflicted the Romans also hit Parthia, China, probably India, as well as the barbarian areas in central and eastern Europe.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33399666/
https://search.brave.com/search?q=fall+of+han+dynasty&summary=1
But, yeah. 😁
https://search.brave.com/search?q=leopard+cat&summary=1
Egypt:
https://www.catster.com/cat-breeds/egyptian-cat-breeds/
almost to Tierra del Fuego:
https://wildcatconservation.org/wild-cats/south-america/geoffroys-cat/
https://www.swoop-patagonia.com/visit/wildlife/animals
Now that’s subtle!
I have one sleeping on the bed with me as I post this. Loving, smart, but a total ‘fraidy cat.
CC
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