New cat family tree revealed

[Eugene]

(BBC News)

Last Updated: Friday, 6 January 2006, 16:51 GMT

New cat family tree revealed


Cats were domesticated 6,000 years ago

By Helen Briggs
BBC News science reporter

Modern cats have their roots in Asia 11 million years ago, according to a DNA study of wild and
domestic cats.

The ancient ancestors of the 37 species alive today migrated across the globe, eventually settling
in all continents except Antarctica, say scientists.

Eight major lineages emerged, including lions, ocelots and domestic cats.

The moggy is most closely related to the African and European wild cat and the Chinese desert cat,
an international team reports in Science.

Warren Johnson of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, US, led the study.

<snip>

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4585766.stm

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Cats were not domesticated 6000 years ago.

Cats were never domesticated.
They domesticated humans.

[mom cat]

3. Mom cat agrees!

[politicaholic]

2. They just had to pick a pic of a cat that's a mirror image of mine...

no wonder my cat tries to jump on my lap every time I eat General Tsao's.

Perhaps she would do one friggin' thing I ask if I learned Chinese...

Probably not.

[moggie]

5. That's no ordinary mirror image of yours

They're an entangled pair of cats. Why do you think Shroedinger picked a cat for his gedanken experiment?

[Double T]

4. Thank you for the CAT INFO, always interested in the ancestry of our pets