When you purchase through tie on our internet site , we may earn an affiliate charge . Here ’s how it works .
China ’s first preferent cats arrive in the country around 1,400 days ago — in all likelihood via the famous Silk Road trading route , ancient feline DNA reveals .
This fresh research — hailed as a " knockout study " — send the comer ofdomestic catsin East Asia several hundred years by and by than previous studies . And it appears that the kitty were an inst hit with the local elite .
This painting from the bottom of a bowl is one of the earliest depictions of a cat from China, dating to 168 B.C. Markings on the cat’s fur suggest it’s a leopard cat, not a domestic cat.
" Cats were ab initio regarded as respect , exotic deary , " subject field co - authorShu - Jin Luo , a primary investigator at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and Evolution at Peking University in China , tell Live Science in an email . " Cats ' mysterious behaviors — switch between removed and affectionate — impart an aura of mystique . "
Modern domestic cats ( Felis catus ) fall from African wildcats ( Felis silvestris lybica ) . Previousresearchsuggests these felines began know alongside humankind in the Middle Eastroughly 10,000 age ago , before develop and then disseminate to Europe about 3,000 years ago , according to the new study .
Around A.D. 600 , merchandiser and diplomat first channel domesticated cats in small crates and John Milton Cage Jr. from the easterly Mediterranean through Central Asia , Luo said . These dealer and official brought just a fistful of the pets to China , tender them as tribute to members of the elite , she tell .
A Tang Dynasty mural from A.D. 829 is one of the earliest depictions of domestic cats in China. Two black-and-white cats are visible at the center.
Related : Lasers divulge secret of fall back Silk Road city in the wad of Uzbekistan
Archaeological grounds shows that long before the arrival of domestic cat-o'-nine-tails in China , mass in rural Chinese communities lived alongside native leopard qat ( Prionailurus bengalensis ) . Researchers have previously found leopard cat bone dating to 5,400 years ago in an ancient husbandry village in the northwestern Shaanxi province , indicating thathumans and cats co - exist in settlementstogether .
But this relationship was not tantamount to cat domestication , the authors of the new study argued . Moreover , the common assumption that cat domesticationtook plaza in China during the Han Dynastybetween 206 B.C. and A.D. 220 also lacks support , as there are no archeological remains of pet cats from that period . Therefore , a complete re - evaluation of when and how domesticated cats came to China is required , the researchers said in the study .
The first domestic cats in China likely had all-white hair, or hair with white patches, explaining the high proportion of such cats in East Asia today.
‘A highly challenging task’
To accost these questions , Luo and her colleagues analyzed 22 felid remains from 14 archaeological sites in China traverse a stop of about 5,000 years . The researcher first sequenced atomic and mitochondrial DNA in the off-white to determine each specie . Then , the researcher compare these results with antecedently publish data from 63 nuclear and 108 mitochondrial genomes that summarise the evolution of quat genetics worldwide .
" This is by far the large and most comprehensive study on small felids living nearly with humans in China , " Luo say . " gather the archaeological samples of cat remains from China across this fourth dimension period [ was ] a highly challenging chore . "
Fourteen of the 22 feline bones from China belonged to domesticated cats , concord to the report , which was upload Feb. 5 to the preprint databaseBioRxivand has not yet been equal reviewed . The oldest of these pet hombre persist originated from Tongwan City in Shaanxi and wasradiocarbon datedto A.D. 730 , evoke that domestic cats arrived in China long after the Han Dynasty had ended .
The 14 domesticated cats in the sample distribution all shared a genetic signature in their mitochondrial desoxyribonucleic acid known as clade IV - B. This theme song is rare among domestic cats from Europe and Western Asia , but the investigator found a close match in the previously published data about a cat that lived sometime between A.D. 775 and 940 in the city of Dhzankent , Kazakhstan .
The Dhzankent true cat is theoldest - known domestic cat along the Silk Road , offering tantalizing clues about the origins of domestic cats in China . The Silk Road ’s heyday lastedbetween A.D. 500 and 800 , hint that merchandiser belike transfer the kitties to East Asia along this path .
Rare coat colors
The cats that merchants and diplomats initially gifted to the Formosan elite group were probable all - white cats or mackerel - brinded true cat with white eyepatch , the researchers noted in the study . DNA from the Tongwan City cat suggested it was a healthy male with a recollective tail and short , either all - white or partially white fur , they said . Even today , the balance of white cat is higher in East Asia than elsewhere in the mankind , the researchers tote up .
— World ’s tiniest cat was a palm - sized tiddler that be in China 300,000 years ago
— 1,200 years ago , a cat in Jerusalem left the oldest be intimate evidence of ' making biscuits ' on a Lucius Clay jug
— Over 40 % of pet cats play fetch — but scientists are n’t quite sure why
Domestic cats became so popular following their introduction to China that hoi polloi comprise them into Formosan folk religious belief , Luo said . " Ancient Taiwanese people even performed specific spiritual rituals when bringing a cat into their homes , consider them not as bare possessions but as honored guests , " she tell .
Melinda Zeder , an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian Institution ’s National Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the new enquiry , order Science magazinethat the work offers valuable insights into how domestic cats made it to China . " Tying them to the Silk Road is really boffo , " Zeder said . " It ’s a knockout discipline . "
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again , you will then be prompted to embark your exhibit name .
