Lead: Most animals are domesticated for good reasons, for example, as meat or as labor.

Being a cat alone has less meat and is not very delicious. It has no working ability and is very independent. It doesn't look like an ideal domestication object at all. Have cats really been domesticated by us? The situation is probably just the opposite, right?

We domesticated cats, but cats came uninvited and "conquered" mankind. ...

Author: Baidu knows netizen Han Yue (director of species website, member of scientific squirrel society)

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Domestic cats, also known as cats, have successfully penetrated into human society with all kinds of selling cute as bait and under the banner of exterminating mouse thieves. It seems that a "human conquest plan" is being carried out. Now, cats all over the world have surpassed them.

After 600 million years, its strength is not weaker than that of Wang Xingren (dog) who is loyal to human beings. However, stupid humans don't feel it at all. Only clever Wang Xingren has foresight. Every time he meets a cat, he will inevitably have a shocking war ... lucky.

However, after years of hard work, scientists finally know the actions of cats in the past 10 thousand years, but some details are still unclear. Just a few days ago, scientists in China also jumped out to "add chaos." ...

A son must start from scratch. ...

For a long time, scholars have been full of doubts about the reason why cats entered human society. Because most animals are domesticated by people for good reasons, such as some domestic animals.

It can be used as meat, and others can be used as labor ... but cats don't seem to stand out at all, have little meat and are not very delicious, and they have no ability to work and are very independent, so they are the only ones domesticated by human beings.

Animals with no social concept ... What's worse, their mouths are too high, they almost only eat meat, and they are full of arrogant attitude towards people-they don't look like an ideal domesticated object at all. Cats are really domesticated by us.

Really?

The situation is probably just the opposite. It is not that we domesticated cats, but that cats came uninvited and "conquered" mankind. ...

/kloc-more than 0/100 million years ago, human agriculture

Has risen, people gather in permanent villages to store food. It was also at this time that the mouse came. About 12000 years ago, in the fertile crescent of ancient Israel, the house mouse

Domesticus) evolved. House mice live in human villages, where they dig holes and build nests. They are completely different from wild rats and will not compete with local wild rats in the wild. After that, black armor

House mice have also appeared in Asia. About 5500 years ago, Rattus norvegicus

Norvegicus) also appeared ... the human village became a paradise for mice. Maybe at that time, dogs were really the main force to catch mice-because they were 17000 to 13000 years ago.

It has been domesticated and is the first animal domesticated by human beings.

There is no doubt that a large number of mice are fatal to cats, and they are probably attracted to human villages by this. Walking in the human village

Fallen cats are not destructive and do not steal food. When they saw more, people let it go. When people find cats preying on snakes and mice, they are encouraged to do so, and people even start to approach cats.

People also give cats a foothold. Besides, some cats look cute. Mao Mao group with big eyes, flat face and forehead is in line with human aesthetic standards. Some people may just be because of the appearance of cats.

Lovely, take it home. ...

The next question is, who couldn't resist the temptation at first and brought the cat back? In the past, people always thought that this was done by Egyptians about 3600 years ago. However, recent research has changed this conclusion.

morality

Driscoll and his team collected 979 DNA samples from domestic cats and wild cats and made genetic analysis. Finally, these samples were divided into five genetic families.

Among them, 4 families completely correspond to 4 known subspecies of wild cats, and have nothing to do with domestic cats. However, in the fifth family, there are not only wild cats, but also all domestic cats, whether British, American or Japanese.

This is true of hybrid or purebred domestic cats. This shows that the wild cats in the fifth family have the closest relationship with domestic cats, and are probably the ancestors of domestic cats. They are cats from the Middle East.

Sylvestris

Leibica). The following research shows that domestic cats are likely to appear on the fertile land of the new moon about 10000 years ago, which is consistent with the time and place where mice appeared. Archaeological evidence also supports in time.

In this picture, a cat bone was also found and buried in a cemetery 9,500 years ago. But it is impossible to confirm whether it belongs to a domestic cat. This is the earliest evidence of human contact with cats so far, but the location has been changed to the Mediterranean.

Fortunately, on the island of Cyprus, the distance is very close. ...

Next, scientists connect the archaeological discoveries about cats and imagine the route that cats continue to spread: about 3,700 years ago, cats

This may be common in Crescent Wodi, where a cat statue made of ivory was unearthed. About a hundred years later, cats came to Egypt and were deified 2900 years ago. The cat became the best girl.

God (goddess)

The incarnation of the goddess Bastiato was sacrificed and worshipped, and they took another big step to conquer mankind ... The journey of cats began in the ancient Middle East and spread to China about 2,000 years ago.

The east and west ends of Eurasia. 500-400 years ago, the colonists landed in America and Australia. This route seemed perfect in geography and time, until scientists from China came out.

discuss ...

20 1 13 years 10, China scientists' papers were published in the famous Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In their paper, they introduced the remains of domestic cats found in Yangshao cultural site in Shaanxi, dating back about 5000 years (5560-5280 BC).

but

However, scientists in China have good reasons. First of all, there was an early agricultural culture here, including millet planting and granaries, traces of mouse activities, and it was also rampant, with the appearance of cats.

Prerequisite. Then, the cat bones are analyzed. These cats conform to the characteristics of domestic cats and are far from the local wildcats-Near East wildcats.

The distribution area of wild cats should not be wild cats. The most convincing thing is that one of the cats' analysis shows that the proportion of meat in its food is far less than expected, but it eats a lot of food, as an outstanding member.

Hunters and cats may not have the ability and interest to steal food for a long time. These foods are probably fed by people!

If so, the time when domestic cats appeared on the land of China was about 3,000 years earlier, which is also very

It may not have spread to East Asia along the ancient trade route. Of course, this conclusion is not enough to shake the conclusion that modern domestic cats originated in the Middle East since ancient times. After all, there was a time buffer of more than 4,000 years before this, and it is hard to say that it happened in the middle.

What? Don't, by what special way did the domestic cat arrive in China? Or, did China domesticate domestic cats in ancient times?

It's too early to draw a conclusion. We need more samples and evidence, and further research including DNA analysis. We first think that cats originated in the Middle East. But in any case, we are one step closer to the truth, or a little unexpectedly far away?