Ancient DNA is finally putting hard numbers on a mystery that has trailed humanity for millennia: when our most familiar feline companions first stepped out of Africa and into homes, ships and cities ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. GrrlScientist writes about evolution, ecology, behavior and health. “Cats were depicted in ancient Egyptian iconography as tabby ...

Like a toy on a string, the timing of cat domestication has been a moving target. Now researchers have pounced on a new timeline suggesting that tame descendants of African wildcats left the continent ...

The international study, published in Science, analyzed 87 complete genomes from both ancient and modern felines to map how cats spread geographically over millennia. The earliest domestic cat DNA in ...

A new study overturns previous findings that domestic cats originated thousands of years earlier. An African wildcat (Felis lybica) rests on a rock in Kruger National Park, South Africa. So far, ...

If you’ve ever lived with a cat, you know they’re often an enigma. That said, scientists may have solved an enduring mystery about these lovable felines—with answers that could narrow down when cats ...

Military roads helped the felines domesticate about 2,000 years ago. By Laura Baisas Published Dec 1, 2025 10:40 AM EST Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 ...

The Afro-Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica) is the world’s most widely distributed small wildcat, but it’s also one of the least studied. The cat’s conservation status is listed as “of least concern” by ...

The origins of domestic cats — centuries before they conquered the world’s sofas and internet memes — have long been murky. Now, ancient DNA is helping to fill in the blanks, and the findings shake up ...

3,500 years ago, cats started showing up in Egyptian paintings on tomb walls and in sculptures and carvings. Not only were they abundant in these representations, but it was very clear that they were ...