From: Joao S. Lopes
Message: 49192
Date: 2007-06-30
Maybe to review the PIE words for cat? and their origins?
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/science/ nature/6251434. stm
"[..]
At least five female ancestors from the region gave rise to all the
domestic cats alive today, scientists believe.
The earliest archaeological evidence of cat domestication dates back
9,500 years, when cats were thought to have lived alongside humans in
settlement sites in Cyprus.
However, the new results show the house cat lineage is far older.
Ancestors of domestic cats are now thought to have broken away from
their wild relatives and started living with humans as early as
130,000 years ago.
The moggy's ancestor may have been like this wild example
The researchers focused on DNA in the mitochondria, the power plants
of cells which supply energy and have their own genetic material.
Comparison of the genetic sequences enabled researchers to determine
the relationships between different cat lineages.
The scientists found the cats fell into distinctive genetic "clades",
or groups.
The results show that, apart from accidental cross-breeding, European
wildcats are not part of the domestic moggy's family tree.
Neither are the Central Asian wildcat, the Southern African wildcat,
or the Chinese desert cat.
But domestic cats formed a clade with some wildcats from the Middle
East, suggesting that today's moggy stems from the wild felines of
this region.
[..]
"