Research overview: dating the blotched tabby coat marking

The mackerel-striped pattern is ancestral in cats, while the swirled blotched tabby is a recent variant produced by mutations in the Taqpep gene. This overview examines how ancient DNA and historical iconography have been used to date when the blotched pattern arose and spread. Evidence points to the blotched marking becoming common only in the medieval and early modern periods, long after functional domestication, indicating that visible aesthetic variation in cats emerged late and may track human movement and informal selection rather than deliberate breeding. The topic connects coat-pattern genetics to questions about when people began caring about how their cats looked, and how trade networks dispersed novel coat variants across Europe and beyond.