Pressing Paws

Felines followed a winding path to domestication

- Meghan Bartels

Two studies complicate the path that cats' ancestors took to domestication.

CATS HAVE TAKEN QUITE A JOURNEY from wild animal to undisputed ruler of millions of couches worldwide.

Scientists long knew the broad outlines of that journey. As humans settled into agriculture and began stockpiling grain, local wild cats sought out these stores as promising places to hunt for rodents. Eventually some humans began encouraging the volunteer pest-control officers, sparking a symbiotic relationship in which both cat and person benefited. Faster than a catnap, felines began changing at a genetic level to become domesticated.

But a pair of new studies, one in Science and one in Cell Genomics, shows it isn’t so easy to herd cats—cat domestication unfolded more slowly and less smoothly than scientists had thought.

Both teams faced the same challenge in their quest to understand how cats pussyfooted their way into humans’ lives—namely, a paucity of archaeological evidence through time. There are several reasons for this lack: For instance, cat bones are very small, and because the animals weren't on humans’ menu, their remains wouldn’t have been tossed into the garbage piles archaeologists often excavate. In addition, the first signs of domestication are likely to be behavioral or cosmetic changes—such as new tolerance of humans or new coat colors—that are not visible in bones at all.