Evolutionary BiologybioRxivPreprint
Leopard Cats Occupied Human Settlements in China for 3,500 years before the Arrival of Domestic cats in 600-900 CE around the Tang Dynasty
Yu Han, Songmei Hu, Ke Liu…·Shu‐Jin Luo
The paper identifies leopard cats as the earliest felines in Chinese human settlements, predating domestic cats by over 2,500 years, and traces the arrival of domestic cats via the Silk Road.