Origins of cats

princess-pickle

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Awww! Imagine if we hadn't domesticated them! They'd be lost without us, wondering where their tuna chunks and chicken was!
 

trouts mom

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Originally Posted by Princess-Pickle

Awww! Imagine if we hadn't domesticated them! They'd be lost without us, wondering where their tuna chunks and chicken was!
They would be eating chipmunks
 

ryn

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That's really interesting, but how come the article says "Experts believe cats originally sought out human company, attracted by rodents infesting the first agricultural settlements" and "Ancestors of domestic cats are now thought to have broken away from their wild relatives and started living with humans as early as 130,000 years ago". They can't both be right, because agriculture wasn't practiced 130, 000 years ago.

Am I not reading it right, or has BBC gotten their facts confused?
 

zissou'smom

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They don't exactly say that, but it does seem kind of contradictory. I think the distinction is in the progenitors of the domestic cat and the domestic cat-- so the creatures that would later evolve and become the domestic cat broke away from what would become wildcats, and then the earliest evidence of domestication is from 9,500 years ago, which does line up with very primitive agrarian settlements.

It isn't very clear though, I agree.
 
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pushylady

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Originally Posted by Trouts mom

They would be eating chipmunks
Noooo! Not the chipmunks!!

Hmm, I wasn't smart enough to notice the contradiction there
. But I think Zissou's Mom has explained it well.
 

theimp98

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i saw that story also.
lol i glad that other people spotted the problem.
hehe but really i doubt they know when and where cats started living with humans.
 

zissou'smom

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Originally Posted by theimp98

i saw that story also.
lol i glad that other people spotted the problem.
hehe but really i doubt they know when and where cats started living with humans.
It wouldn't be too hard. We know when and where the first agrarian settlements were. Examining what they left behind they'd expect to find evidence that they lived around cats. Everyone had to bury their trash and their dead somehow.
 

kitytize

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This is not the first time I have heard of cats being domesticated earlier than thought. I have always believed cats were domesticated earlier. I don't know why. And I tell my family just wait eventually we will find proof.
 
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