Domestication examined

In this week's online journal Science it is reported that for the first time genetic research has concluded that domestic cats originated in the Middle East and not Egypt.

Cats will always remain mysterious animals--but exactly where they came from is no longer a riddle. A genetic study has shown that the ancestors of all of today's domestic cats prowled the Near East.

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Their analysis indicates that the common ancestors of all domesticated cats lived in the Near East some 130,000 years ago. They were wildcats living in the Fertile Crescent--the area extending from the Eastern Mediterranean around Turkey and down into Mesopotamia--"exactly the place where humanity settled down to agriculture ten to twelve thousand years ago," says O'Brien. The team found five lineages of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in modern felines. Because of this variation, the researchers believe domestication occurred a half-dozen times or so in the Middle East.