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, Xiao Jing Xu, Sean Doherty, Alexandra Elizabeth Jamieson, Aurélie Manin, Sofia Granja Martins, Miaomiao Yang, Chong Yu, Juan Wang, Zhuang Wu, Canping Chen, Sicheng Han, Daowei Lu, , 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.
bioRxiv · Jan 31, 2025 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology