By Malcolm Ritter
AP Science Writer 

Science Says: DNA shows early spread of cats in human world

 


NEW YORK (AP) — Long before cats became the darlings of Facebook and YouTube, they spread through the ancient human world.

A DNA study reached back thousands of years to track that conquest and found evidence of two major dispersals from the Middle East, in which people evidently took cats with them. Genetic signatures the felines had on those journeys are still seen in most modern-day breeds.

Researchers analyzed DNA from 209 ancient cats as old as 9,000 years from Europe, Africa and Asia, including some ancient Egyptian cat mummies.

"They are direct witnesses of the situation in the pas...



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