Leopard Cats

And in an unexpected twist, researchers found that a wild cat coexisted with the population of China for a period of time before the emergence of domestic cats. These were leopard cats, small wild cats with spots similar to those of leopards, which lived in human communities in China for approximately 3,500 years. Researchers dated the bones, examined the DNA, and compared it with the genetic records of present-day felines. Recent evidence indicates that cat domestication did not begin in the Levant, when agriculture began. A few millennia later, somewhere in North Africa, it took place. Professor Larson stated that, instead of occurring in the area where the population was beginning to settle with agriculture, it seems to be a phenomenon much more typical of Egypt.