title: Earliest "Domestic" Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis).
abstract: The ancestor of all modern domestic cats is the wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, with archaeological evidence indicating it was domesticated as early as 10,000 years ago in South-West Asia. A recent study, however, claims that cat domestication also occurred in China some 5,000 years ago and involved the same wildcat ancestor (F. silvestris). The application of geometric morphometric analyses to ancient small felid bones from China dating between 5,500 to 4,900 BP, instead reveal these and other remains to be that of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). These data clearly indicate that the origins of a human-cat 'domestic' relationship in Neolithic China began independently from South-West Asia and involved a different wild felid species altogether. The leopard cat's 'domestic' status, however, appears to have been short-lived--its apparent subsequent replacement shown by the fact that today all domestic cats in China are genetically related to F. silvestris.
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Denis
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Vigne
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, Paris, France.|Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Allowen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Evin
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, Paris, France.|Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cucchi
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, Paris, France.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, Paris, France.|Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Songmei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Soulages
authors.affiliation: Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Weilin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Zhouyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiangtao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dobney
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000145:classification*; D002415:Cats; D002681:China; D045989:Felidae / Q000145:classification*; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology