Cats Sailed With Vikings to Conquer The World, Says Genetic Study

science alert ^

[BenLurkin]

n the first large-scale study of ancient feline DNA, the results reveal how our inscrutable friends were domesticated in the Near East and Egypt some 15,000 years ago, before spreading across the globe and into our hearts.

The study was presented at the International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology in Oxford, UK back in 2016, and sequenced DNA from 209 cats that lived between 15,000 and 3,700 years ago - so from just before the advent of agriculture right up to the 18th century. Found in more than 30 archaeological sites in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, these ancient feline specimens are helping researchers to piece together the beginnings of an animal that we share our beds with, but know surprisingly little about.

"We don't know the history of ancient cats. We do not know their origin, we don't know how their dispersal occurred," one of the team, Eva-Maria Geigl, an evolutionary geneticist from the Institut Jacques Monod in France, told Ewen Callaway at Nature.

Analysing the DNA of cats found in ancient Egyptian tombs, burial sites in Cyprus, and an old Viking settlement in Germany, the team found that cats likely experienced not one, but two, waves of expansion during their early history.

[BenLurkin]

ping

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Ok ok, cmon, somebody. Where are all the “Viking Kitty” FRMeme pictures already?

[Hugin]

Norwegian Forest cat.

[BenLurkin]

They are our Overlords.

[BenLurkin]

ping

[doorgunner69]

They are our Overlords.

We have too many indoor cats, and yes, some do try to control events.

[1_Inch_Group]

Every Viking had Feline Mycoplasma?

Not sure how I feel about that.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. Maine Coon ping within and without the overall GGG milieu.

And has there ever BEEN a FReepier FR topic, in history, or even in the recesses of our imaginations?!?

To Valhalla with it, in the spirit of Siegfried with the gale behind him, I'm pinging ALL my lists!

[Bullish]

What? You thought Viking Kitties was a myth? No my friend, no.

[SunkenCiv]

Cats Sailed With Vikings to Conquer The World, Says Genetic Study

s/b

Vikings Sailed With Cats to Conquer The World, Obviously, Who Needs a Genetic Study

[SunkenCiv]

Maine Coon Cat image search

[Yaelle]

I learned this 20 years ago here on FR.

[C210N]

Here they are in their traditional accouterments

[SunkenCiv]

Robert Schoch agrees that original head on The Great Sphinx was the Lioness deity Mehit.

[GOP Poet]

Truly!! :D

[Slings and Arrows]

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Viking Cat Trivia/History:

THE number one Wedding Gift to Viking Brides was Kittens, Litters of Kittens.

Couldn’t set up a new household without them. Farming was hard work. Cats kept what you grew safe and sound for the family.

FREE Viking Stuff.

My 3 Volume Alternate History Viking High Adventure Series

Yours for the taking. No lists, no money, No nothing but FREE. Here’s the download links for all 3 of them.

http://wulfanson.blogspot.com/2017/05/viking-hunter-heroic-fantasy-trilogy_17.html

Available in .mobi or .epub formats. (.mobi should DL right into your Kindle reader pgm.)

[jmacusa]

Tell me about it. The wife and I have seven. All rescued either from the outside or from shelters. God how they can manipulate the heck out of you. If they're hungry they pester you by staring at you or rubbing incessantly up against you. They hog the bed. They just know how to work on you. The littlest one we have is called "Peanut'' because she's so small and she's my wife's baby. Spoiled rotten. Peanut showed up at our backdoor about four years ago with her right hind leg busted clean in two. We took her to the vet and they tried to fuse it back together with a splint but it was no good, the leg had to be amputated. Hasn't slowed Peanut down. She runs around the house like a demon.

[zeestephen]

Great post.

Kitty pictures...

Yes!