Earliest “Domestic” Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)

Vigne, Jean‐Denis; Evin, Allowen; Cucchi, Thomas; Dai, Lingling; Yu, Chong; Hu, Songmei; Soulages, Nicolas; Wang, Weilin; Sun, Zhongchang; Jiang-tao, Gao; Dobney, Keith; Yuan, Jing

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147295

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…As one of the world's oldest civilization centers, China is a known hotspot of animal and plant domestication, involving in or giving rise to numerous domesticated varieties such as the dog, pig, rice, and millet (17)(18)(19)(20). The earliest evidence of commensal relationship between human and a cat, in this case Asian leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), was also unearthed from a Neolithic site in northwest China (21,22), casting light on the existence of an environment conducive to a human-cat commensal process at that time in the East Asia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic Evidence for the Chinese Mountain Cat as a Wildcat Conspecific (Felis silvestris bieti) and Its Introgression to Domestic Cats

Xing

Meng

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The enigmatic Chinese mountain cat, endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has a controversial taxonomic status, whether a true species or conspecific with the wildcat (Felis silvestris) and whether it may have contributed to the domestication of cats (F. s. catus) in Asia. Here, we sampled 270 domestic and wild cats across China, sequenced 51 nuclear genomes, 55 mitogenomes, and multi-locus regions from modern and museum specimens. Genome-wide phylogenies supported taxonomic classification of the Chinese mountain cat as wildcat subspecies, F. s. bieti. No involvement of F. s. bieti in cat domestication in East Asia was detected, confirming that domestic cats shared a single origin from the African wildcat (F. s. lybica). A complex hybridization scenario including ancient introgression from the Asiatic wildcat (F. s. ornata) to F. s. bieti, and contemporary gene flow between F. s. bieti and sympatric domestic cats in the Tibetan region, raises the prospect of disrupting the genetic integrity of F. s. bieti, an issue with profound conservation implications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic Evidence for the Chinese Mountain Cat as a Wildcat Conspecific (Felis silvestris bieti) and Its Introgression to Domestic Cats

Xing

Meng

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…This approach allows overall shape variation to be analysed, as opposed to ratio methods that analyse only parts of specimens. GMM have proven useful in archaeology and anthropology for elucidating morphological variation in prehistoric populations of animals, (Bignon et al, ; Cucchi, ; Cucchi et al, ; Curran, , ; Evin et al, ; Thomson and Curran, ; Seetah et al, ; Vigne et al, ), describing artefact shape (e.g. Cardillo, ) and describing morphology across a phylogeny (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Separating Sheep (Ovis aries L.) and Goats (Capra hircus L.) Using Geometric Morphometric Methods: An Investigation of Astragalus Morphology from Late and Final Bronze Age Central Asian Contexts

Haruda

2016

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Many qualitative and quantitative methods for the separation of sheep and goat bones are based upon Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and European specimens. However, these methods may not be as applicable in other geographical contexts due to regional morphological variation. In order to address this, both traditional and geometric morphometric methods were applied to sheep, (Ovis aries L.) and goat (Capra hircus L.) astragali from archaeological sites from Kazakhstan dating to the Late and Final Bronze Age (1900-900 BCE). This exploratory research confirmed that qualitative features remained useful for distinguishing between species, while traditional morphometric methods were unable to conclusively support the field identification of species. Geometric morphometric methods found significant morphological differences between species and confirmed group membership while exploring specific qualitative features that were effective in distinguishing between sheep and goat in Central Asian contexts.

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“…However, lack of data for contemporary rodents and other possible prey limited the interpretative potential of those results ( 61 ). Furthermore, morphometric verification of Chinese cat remains revealed that the study involved a leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis ) rather than a wildcat or domestic cat ( 62 ). Despite no direct relation to Felis , that study pioneered the field of ancient felid ecology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet

Krajcarz

Baca

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Cat remains from Poland dated to 4,200 to 2,300 y BCE are currently the earliest evidence for the migration of the Near Eastern cat (NE cat), the ancestor of domestic cats, into Central Europe. This early immigration preceded the known establishment of housecat populations in the region by around 3,000 y. One hypothesis assumed that NE cats followed the migration of early farmers as synanthropes. In this study, we analyze the stable isotopes in six samples of Late Neolithic NE cat bones and further 34 of the associated fauna, including the European wildcat. We approximate the diet and trophic ecology of Late Neolithic felids in a broad context of contemporary wild and domestic animals and humans. In addition, we compared the ecology of Late Neolithic NE cats with the earliest domestic cats known from the territory of Poland, dating to the Roman Period. Our results reveal that human agricultural activity during the Late Neolithic had already impacted the isotopic signature of rodents in the ecosystem. These synanthropic pests constituted a significant proportion of the NE cat’s diet. Our interpretation is that Late Neolithic NE cats were opportunistic synanthropes, most probably free-living individuals (i.e., not directly relying on a human food supply). We explore niche partitioning between studied NE cats and the contemporary native European wildcats. We find only minor differences between the isotopic ecology of both these taxa. We conclude that, after the appearance of the NE cat, both felid taxa shared the ecological niches.

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Earliest “Domestic” Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)

Cited by 23 publications

References 19 publications

Genomic Evidence for the Chinese Mountain Cat as a Wildcat Conspecific (Felis silvestris bieti) and Its Introgression to Domestic Cats

Genomic Evidence for the Chinese Mountain Cat as a Wildcat Conspecific (Felis silvestris bieti) and Its Introgression to Domestic Cats

Separating Sheep (Ovis aries L.) and Goats (Capra hircus L.) Using Geometric Morphometric Methods: An Investigation of Astragalus Morphology from Late and Final Bronze Age Central Asian Contexts

Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet

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