The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago

Abstract

The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat Felis lybica lybica. Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful adaptation to anthropogenic environments. Uncertainty remains regarding whether domestic cats originated in the Levant, Egypt, or elsewhere in the natural range of African wildcats. The timing and circumstances of their dispersal into Europe are also unknown. In this study, the analysis of 87 ancient and modern cat genomes suggests that domestic cats did not spread to Europe with Neolithic farmers. Conversely, they were introduced to Europe around 2,000 years ago, probably from North Africa. In addition, a separate earlier introduction (1st millennium BCE) of wildcats from Northwest Africa may have been responsible for the present-day wild population in Sardinia. Europe PMC Funders Author Manuscripts The domestic cat (Felis catus) has a complex evolutionary history that ultimately resulted in a close association with humans (1). As one of the most successful mammalian domesticates, it has a worldwide distribution that extends even to remote islands. When including feral cats (i.e. populations descended from domestic cats currently living in the wild), the global population of Felis catus is approaching one billion (2, 3). Despite their ubiquity, the timing and circumstances of cat domestication and dispersal remain uncertain. This is due to a variety of factors, including the paucity of felid remains in archaeological contexts, the difficulty of assigning species and domestication status to skeletal elements (since wild and domesticated forms overlap in size and morphology (4– * Corresponding author: claudio.ottoni@uniroma2.it (CO),. †Deceased during the course of this study Author contribution Conceptualization: CO, WVN, JP Data curation: WVN, BDC, CO Formal analysis: MDM, CO Funding acquisition: CO, NS Investigation: MDM, VR, PS, MB, BM, TDC, BDC, WVN, CO Methodology: MDM, VR, PS, CO, BM, SG Project administration: TDC, CO Sample provision: FA, PCA, HB, EC, ECer, JDGM, CD, MD, IF, LG, IGS, HCK, GCK, MM, RM, CM, MM, VO, TO, MP, BPU, GR, MR, LS, KS, ABS, US, AS, GS, NSp, AT, VT, ST, SV, UW, BW, FM, RC Supervision: CO, WVN, JP Visualization: CO, MDM, PS Writing – original draft: MDM, CO Writing – review & editing: GL, JP, WVN, LF, NS, SD, BDC, NSp, VR, PS, MB, FA, CD, MD, IGS, HCK, GKK, RM, CM, MR, KS, US, ST, SV, UW, BW, FM, RC, MDM, CO