| Cat evolution has been going on for a long time... | | | | rodent skeletons entombed within the storage relics. |
| longer than people have been on earth. And when | | | | It can easily be surmised that the smaller cats |
| people finally did show up, the cat let us right on in. | | | | followed their prey to the farms and probably |
| Noah may have had cats on the Ark he built for the | | | | couldn't resist the banquet concentration of mice and |
| great flood, but were they the ancestor of what we | | | | rats these early silos offered. Humans, being a smart |
| know as the domestic cat of today's world? It can | | | | creature himself, would have noticed the antipathy |
| be confusing to think that all there is in the world, is | | | | that rodents and cats had (have) for each other. An |
| all there has ever been in light of so much evidence | | | | early farmer might have come across a litter of |
| to the contrary, i.e. fossil discoveries. I think the story | | | | kittens and taken them home to try and raise them |
| of Noah is meant to convey an understanding of | | | | for the purpose of protecting his hard work from the |
| greater meaning than one recounting the re-seeding | | | | fields. |
| of life after a particularly heavy rain. Scholar's | | | | Very likely, the first young kittens would have |
| generally place the deluge sometime in the 2nd and | | | | retained most of their wild nature and maintained a |
| 3rd millennium BC, or some 4 - 5 thousand years ago. | | | | 'safe' distance from their human benefactor. But, as |
| That was about the time Egyptians were | | | | generations of kittens had more contact with people, |
| domesticating the first cats. Did they get on board? | | | | especially being handled by humans as a kitten, they |
| And how safe did the rats and mice feel? Were the | | | | would have grown tolerant to, and amenable with, |
| cats guardians of the food stores on the ark which | | | | people to cat interactions, maybe even sleeping in |
| everyone depended on until dry land was again | | | | their homes. Speculating this way, the early stages of |
| underfoot? And how did those Koala's make it to the | | | | domestication might have begun. Two species of |
| ship if they were confined to the continent of | | | | cats were most successful with adapting to this new |
| Australia? Really, the best 5000 years can do is raise | | | | relationship, Felis Silvestris and Felis Lybica. Silvestris |
| a lot of questions. | | | | became more adaptable to the European |
| The great equalizer in any debate is time. Time | | | | environments and climate while Lybica preferred the |
| changes everything, including the diametric of a | | | | Middle East. |
| species. As people spread around the world, their | | | | Early Egyptians had multiple deities and these gods |
| skins changed color, eating habits adapted to new | | | | were attributed with animal-like qualities. The chief |
| environments, clashes occurred with others also in | | | | god of Egypt was the sun god Ra, symbolized by a |
| migration for prized lands that yielded favorable life | | | | lion. Ra was said to rule the world during the day |
| supporting resources, i.e. abundant prey animals for | | | | shining from a sun chariot traveling the sky from |
| hunter-gathers, then domesticated stock animals and | | | | dawn to dusk. At night he fell into darkness where |
| food/grain plants for sustenance. | | | | he was vulnerable to his enemies. But, having the |
| Survival is unforgiving of failure. One either survives... | | | | qualities of a lion he had the vision of a cat who could |
| or doesn't. It's one identifying characteristic of "life" | | | | see in the darkness to better protect himself . Bast |
| that it yearns to survive. Another survival | | | | was known as the goddess of fertility, birth and |
| characteristic is that individual members of a species, | | | | family who also was symbolized by a cat. It didn't |
| don't, or rather only do so for a limited time. A | | | | escape the Egyptians notice how strong the maternal |
| life-span as we call it. Only large groups or | | | | instinct is in cats when caring for their kittens. Cats |
| classifications of rocks, trees and other sentient | | | | were buried with pharaohs and were even accorded |
| beings, including that of any species can survive for | | | | cemeteries of their own for common people who |
| indeterminate times, if it is successful. | | | | had cats in their own care. |
| Fossil documentation of cat evolution is extremely | | | | It was after the rise of the Roman Empire that cats |
| incomplete. There is evidence tracing the cat to | | | | made their way to Europe as a domesticated animal. |
| around 200 million years ago, with cat evolution | | | | Cats also lost their 'god' status and took on the more |
| beginning when they diverged from reptiles. From | | | | practical role being a 'pet'. By then the |
| that point scientists have divided the cat family into | | | | cat-mouse-human triangle was pretty well established, |
| two major groups. Feline cats which includes all the | | | | and as humans migrated, cultivating the world as |
| modern species of cat, and sabre-tooth cats, who | | | | they went, the cat and mouse went right along with |
| are all extinct. The 'Felidae Family' or Feline cats are | | | | them. Domestic cats traveled the Spice Routes to |
| gathered into three Genus: | | | | Asia and sailed the seas to the Americas. |
| - Panthera - Lions and tigers and... panthers, or cats | | | | Everywhere they have gone, cats have established |
| that roar. | | | | populations not only by inter-breeding among their |
| - Felis - Lynx, ocelots, your Fluffy and other small | | | | own kind, but by breeding with indigenous species |
| cats. | | | | they met along the way. The result has been a |
| - Acinonyx - or the cheetah. They're in a group of | | | | plethora of fur coat colors, hair lengths and coat |
| their own because they cannot retract their claws | | | | patterns which identify cats today. |
| like all other cats. | | | | The effects of domestication on cat evolution can be |
| Originally, cat evolution diagrams had cats divided into | | | | summarized as follows: |
| two main groups: Big Cats and Small Cats. The | | | | - Period of Competition (prior to 7,000 BC) |
| distinction was based on the size and shape of their | | | | characterized by wild cats competing with |
| skulls. But, it was discovered that the division was | | | | hunter-gatherer humans for birds and small mammals. |
| not viable since studies eventually showed a gradual | | | | - Period of Commensality (7,000 - 4,000 BC) |
| transition of skull characteristics from the smallest to | | | | characterized by 'semi-domestic' cats feeding on |
| the larger cats. There essentially was no separate | | | | vermin around and within early villages. |
| distinction using that criteria. | | | | - Period of Early Domestication (4,000 - 3,000 BC) |
| Lately, DNA studies have provided insights to cat | | | | with the confinement of cats to cult status |
| evolution as they migrated from Asia to North | | | | - Period of Full Domestication (3,000 BC - present) |
| American via the Bering Sea Land Bridge that | | | | the popularization of cat keeping and the diffusion of |
| appeared around 9 million years ago. These panther | | | | cats from Egypt* |
| like predators had first appeared in Asia about 2 | | | | The close coexistence that cats and people began |
| million years before the Land Bridge was exposed by | | | | when cultures started to formulate and we as |
| falling sea levels. Cats are considered , next to | | | | humans settled down from our hunter-gather |
| humans, the most successful of hunters. They would | | | | wanderings might be conceived as a chance |
| have followed migrating prey and easily survived the | | | | encounter. Our early farming ancestors would have |
| challenges of roaming vast territories as they | | | | had to solve many problems, the solutions to which |
| explored new environments. (Think of kitty nosing | | | | today we take for granted. But, the cat hasn't |
| around an unexplored bush or strange new object, | | | | forgotten their contribution to our success and this |
| either in or out of her territory) Later, several | | | | might even account for their seemingly proud nature. |
| American lineages of newly evolved cats returned to | | | | After all, the interconnectedness of everything in this |
| Asia via the Bridge and with each migration, | | | | world is only surpassed by the human arrogance to |
| evolutionary forces morphed these cats into a | | | | dismiss such an idea by believing in our own mental |
| rainbow of species ranging from lions and leopards to | | | | superiority, which then only perpetuates a belief in |
| lynxes, ocelots and today's domestic house cat. | | | | our disconnectedness from nature. Fortunately, only |
| Where were people at this time? Well, no where to | | | | people are capable of such mutterings. Cats have |
| be found... yet. Anatomically modern humans evolved | | | | never forgotten their roots. Roots buried deep in cat |
| solely in Africa, between 100,000 and 200,000 years | | | | evolution, domestication and time. |
| ago, according to most experts using deductions | | | | There are moments I find myself, like many others I |
| based on mitochondrial DNA data. Obviously, cat | | | | suspect, lost within the loneliness that results in |
| evolution is long on history with existing in this world. | | | | acknowledging the separateness of being, or distance |
| It was around 10,000 years ago as humans stopped | | | | that seems to be between each of us in this life. It's |
| being hunter-gathers and started to cultivate the | | | | then that I only have to look into the sky, marveling |
| land, that the relationship seeds between people and | | | | at the distance that exists between myself and the |
| cats began. By then cats inhabited most parts of the | | | | infernal ovens that are the stars. Even at that great |
| world except in the Arctic, Antarctica, Australia and | | | | distance, which is measured in the time it takes light |
| inhospitable tundra regions. As the first modern | | | | to travel in one year, I am comforted in the |
| humans migrated from central Africa to Europe and | | | | knowledge that we are all made of the same stuff |
| Asia, it would have been impossible for cat and | | | | that is spilling out from those light factories. We are |
| human paths not to cross. But, it was when people | | | | so interconnected... yet, it is blindly taken for granted |
| began to grow crops that certain species of cats and | | | | as we pursue our inflated activities of living every |
| humans began to have a co-dependant relationship, | | | | day. Coming back to this place, my kitty lies on my |
| creating an interesting, if not fateful, twist in cat | | | | lap and I stroke her back while she quietly accepts |
| evolution. | | | | the affection. It doesn't take much to reverse our |
| From the beginning the newly evolved farmers found | | | | roles, and put myself in her place, to even become |
| that food storage, especially grain storage, became | | | | her back, relishing the stroke of my hand upon it. |
| an attraction for small rodents such as rats and mice. | | | | And, with a little imagination, I can trace the path of |
| Archeological evidence supports this given that | | | | cat evolution in my mind. |
| uncovered storage ruins have a preponderance of | | | | |