Leopard cats likely domesticated in Ancient China

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(Associated Press)

Wild leopard cats may have been domesticated by farmers in China more than 5,000 years ago, according to a new study of feline fossils.

These cats were of a different species than the ancestors of today's house cats, which suggests that at least in the early history of pets, humans may have had two different kinds of kitties keeping them company.

Today's pet cats (Felis catus) descend from the wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) native to the Middle East and Southwest Asia. It's typically thought that humans and cats first got cozy in the Near East some 10,000 years ago, after the birth of agriculture. A cat was found buried in the same grave as a human at a 9,500-year-old Neolithic settlement in Cyprus. Cat burials nearly 8,000 years old have also been found at an elite cemetery in Hierakonpolis, in Egypt. [Here, Kitty, Kitty: 10 Facts for Cat Lovers]

But recent discoveries of cat fossils in China have muddled that narrative. Cat bones have been unearthed at Neolithic sites; one such site was a village called Quanhucun. Some researchers have claimed these remains are evidence that cat domestication also occurred in northwest China independently, but it was not clear which species these cats belonged to.