For millennia, cats have shared our homes, but the story of how they became domesticated is far more complex—and recent—than previously thought. Two new studies published in Science and Cell Genomics reveal that cats didn’t simply transition from wild to lap-friendly overnight. Instead, the process unfolded gradually, with multiple false starts and a surprisingly late surge in true domestication.
The Slow Burn of Domestication
The long-held assumption that cats were tamed early in human history is being challenged. Archaeological evidence for feline domestication is scarce; cat bones are small and less likely to survive excavation compared to those of commonly consumed animals. This scarcity has forced researchers to rely on genetic analysis, which now suggests that the timeline is far shorter than imagined.
One study focused on cats in ancient China, finding that Asian wildcats coexisted with humans for 3,500 years without becoming fully domesticated. As biologist Luo Shu-Jin notes, these wildcats were a “clear example of a ‘failed domestication’,” remaining fierce and independent despite prolonged contact. Climate shifts and agricultural changes may have played a role, reducing food availability and hindering their integration into human settlements. True domestic cats only arrived via the Silk Road around 1,400 years ago, suggesting a later influx rather than an ancient, gradual transition.
Rethinking the Origins in Europe and North Africa
A parallel study examined ancient cat remains in Europe and North Africa, reinforcing the idea that domestication wasn’t a straightforward process. Previous research indicated a mix of Near Eastern and North African wildcat ancestry in early domestic cats. However, a fresh look at nuclear DNA from Turkish cats dating back thousands of years revealed something surprising: these felines were purely wild.
This finding, combined with the Chinese study, suggests that cats weren’t fully integrated into human life until as recently as 2,000 years ago. Even then, the process wasn’t absolute; as paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni points out, cats maintained their independence, frequently interbreeding with local wild populations.
The Speed of Feline Integration
The relatively recent timeline underscores just how rapidly cats settled into the human world. Despite a long history of coexistence, true domestication appears to have occurred within a few centuries—a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms.
As feline geneticist Leslie Lyons succinctly puts it, “They’re just peeping the door open just a little bit at a time… to give us ideas of how they got where they are.” The story of cat domestication is still unfolding, and these new studies serve as a reminder that our feline companions have a more complex, and surprisingly recent, history with humans than we once believed.
