In order to determine whether cats were brought to China more than 5,000 years ago or simply domesticated at that time, two hypotheses that have yet to be solved, scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) collaborated with teams from the United Kingdom and China in order to determine the exact species of cats from remains found in Chinese agricultural settlements from approximately 3500 BC. The results showed that the remains stemmed from the leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis, a distant relative of the western wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, which all modern domesticated cats originated from, suggesting that cats were domesticated in China earlier than the previously believed time period of 3,000 BC, according to the center's press release.
In 2001, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found cat bones in northern Chinese agricultural settlements dating from 3,500 BC - however, it was uncertain whether this was an indication of a relationship between humans and cats at this time or the arrival of the first domestic cats. Although there are approximately four species of small cats in China, remains of the western wildcat had never been discovered prior to the current study.
The remains were tested using a geometric morphometric analysis, the only way of determining the species of small cat bones in the absence of ancient DNA. Using the mandibles of five cats from Shaanxi and Henan that dated from 2500 to 2900 BC, the team identified all of the bones as stemming from the leopard cat, a species that is still prevalent in Eastern Asia today.
The results show that it was the leopard cat, not the western wildcat, that began to form a relationship with humans and that much like North American cats, domestication was closely related to the start of agriculture.
The findings were published in the Jan. 22 issue of PLOS One.
