Research library
🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries
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13 summaries matching “wildcat” in Domestic Cat Science on domestic cat
A 9,500-year-old human-cat burial at Shillourokambos, Cyprus
PaperExcavating the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos on Cyprus, Vigne and colleagues uncovered a complete cat skeleton deliberately buried within centimetres of a human grave, the two interred together…
Jean-Denis Vigne, Jean Guilaine, Karyne Debue, Laurent Haye, Patrice Gerard · Science · 2004
An archaeological and historical review of felid-human relationships
ReviewFaure and Kitchener synthesized archaeological, iconographic and historical evidence to trace how people and small cats came together across the ancient world. They argued that domestication was a gra…
Eva-Maria Geigl Faure, Andrew C. Kitchener · Anthrozoos · 2009
Comparative analysis of the domestic cat genome and domestication signatures
PaperMontague and colleagues produced a high-quality domestic cat reference genome and compared it with wild felids and other mammals to find the genetic footprint of domestication. They detected selection…
Michael J. Montague, Gang Li, Barbara Gandolfi, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2014
Research overview: Felis lybica, the wildcat ancestor of house cats
OverviewThe African or Near Eastern wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, is the direct ancestor of all domestic cats. This overview surveys its ecology, distribution and behaviour, describing a solitary, territo…
Research overview: breed ancestry and random-bred cat populations
OverviewModern cat breeds emerged recently from broadly distributed random-bred populations, and this overview surveys research reconstructing their ancestry and relationships. It examines genetic studies tra…
Research overview: comparing cat and dog domestication
OverviewDogs and cats represent contrasting domestication stories, and comparing them clarifies what domestication means. This overview surveys the differences: dogs descend from wolves through a long, intens…
Research overview: domestic cat and European wildcat hybridization
OverviewBecause the domestic cat and its wild relatives remain fully interfertile, hybridization is a persistent conservation concern, especially for the European wildcat, Felis silvestris silvestris, in plac…
Research overview: leopard cats and a possible independent East Asian origin
OverviewAlthough all modern house cats descend from the Near Eastern wildcat, archaeological cats at early Chinese farming villages were later identified as leopard cats, a different genus-level relative. Thi…
Research overview: population genetics of feral cats
OverviewGenetic tools illuminate how feral cat populations are connected, structured and sourced, informing management, and this overview surveys that research. It examines studies using molecular markers to…
Research overview: the commensal pathway model of cat domestication
OverviewAnimal domestication is often described as following three routes: a commensal pathway, a prey pathway and a directed pathway. This overview focuses on the commensal model as applied to cats, in which…
Research overview: the meow as a human-directed signal
OverviewAdult cats rarely meow at one another but meow frequently at people, leading to the hypothesis that the meow is largely a product of life with humans. This overview surveys evidence that domestic cats…
Research overview: the self-domestication hypothesis in cats
OverviewThe idea that cats domesticated themselves holds that wildcats with reduced fear of humans gained access to abundant rodents and food scraps, reproduced more successfully near settlements, and thereby…
The Near Eastern origin of cat domestication
PaperDriscoll and colleagues sampled mitochondrial DNA from nearly 1,000 wildcats and domestic cats across Europe, Asia and Africa to resolve where the house cat came from. The analysis showed all domestic…
Carlos A. Driscoll, Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Alfred L. Roca, et al. · Science · 2007