1. The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication.
- Author
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Driscoll, Carlos A., Menotti-Raymond, Marilyn, Roca, Alfred L., Hupe, Karsten, Johnson, Warren E., Geffen, Eli, Harley, Eric H., Delibes, Miguel, Pontier, Dominique, Kitchener, Andrew C., Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki, O'Brien, Stephen J., and Macdonald, David W.
- Subjects
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GENOMES , *CATS , *DOMESTIC animals , *ANIMAL training , *WILDCAT , *ANIMAL breeding , *GENETICS , *ANIMAL species , *DOMESTICATION of animals - Abstract
The world's domestic cats carry patterns of sequence variation in their genome that reflect a history of domestication and breed development. A genetic assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors—Fells silvestris silvestris (European wildcat), F. s. lybica (Near Eastern wildcat), F. s. ornata (central Asian wildcat), F. s. cafra (southern African wildcat), and F. s. bieti (Chinese desert cat)—indicated that each wild group represents a distinctive subspecies of Fells silvestris. Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, probably coincident with agricultural village development in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendants were transported across the world by human assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
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