Cats' brains are shrinking and it's human's fault

Cats were first domesticated around 7500 BC, a new study finds that thousands of years of dependence on humans caused the cat's brain to shrink.

In a study published January 26 in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers compared the skull measurements (an indicator of brain size) of modern domestic cats with those of their closest wild ancestors. Among them are the African wildcat (Felis lybica) and also the European wildcat (Felis silvestris).

The team found that skull size and brain size in domesticated cats have shrunk significantly over the past 10,000 years compared with their wild ancestors.

Domesticated cats (catus) have a smaller brain size than African (lybica) and European (silvestris) wildcats.

This does not necessarily mean that your pet cat is any less intelligent than a wildcat. However, according to one theory by the researchers, it suggests that the domestication of animals may have inadvertently changed the way the brains of those animals developed.

These changes can begin when the animal is still an embryo and has just developed neural crest cells - a special type of cell found only in vertebrates that plays an important role in development. of the nervous system, among other things.

Selective domestication of animals may have caused a decrease in neural crest cell migration and proliferation, leading to a decrease in excitability and fear, the researchers said. This decrease may also cause correlated changes to brain morphology, responsiveness, and brain size."

The skull size and brain size in domesticated cats have shrunk considerably.

They reviewed several older studies from the 1960s and 1970s that compared the skull sizes of domestic and wild cats. These older studies support the notion that domesticated cats have dramatically reduced brain size over the past thousands of years. However, some studies have compared modern cats with European wildcats, which are no longer considered to be their direct ancestors.

In the new study, the authors wanted to update by comparing the domestic cat with the African wildcat, which genetic research has confirmed is the closest ancestor of the modern domestic cat.

The team found that the old study was still accurate, with domestic cats having about 25% less skull size compared to African and European wildcats.

Domestic cats have about 25% less skull size compared to African and European wildcats.

All of this suggests that domestication has had a significant effect on cat evolution over the past few thousand years - a phenomenon that is also found in many other domesticated animals.

"Changes to cranial volume have been well documented in domesticated species, including sheep, rabbits, dogs and many others," the researchers said.

They conclude: 'Understanding this not only sheds light on some of the changes that domestication causes to wildlife, but also raises concerns about wild species being threatened by hybridisation. created with domestic animals.'

 The domestic cat is a major threat to the Chinese mountain cat.

According to a recent LiveScience statistic, domestic cats are a major threat to Chinese mountain cats. They look a lot like domestic cats but have lynx-like ears, bushy tails, and blue eyes. Its feline taxonomy - Felis silvestris bieti - is genetically distinct from the European wildcat (Felis silvestris), but some worry that the wild animal may lose its genetics when domestic cats cross the border. mixed with it, eventually causing the genes of the Chinese mountain cat to disappear.