Ancient DNA is rewriting the origin story of the cat curled on the sofa. Long before the familiar house cat padded into ...

Domestic cats the world over can trace their ancestry back to North African wildcats that lived around 2,000 years ago. It ...

The contemporary house cats (Felis catus) in China came into the picture much later. Descendants of the African wildcat ( ...

The modern house cat reached China in the 8th century. Before that, another cat — the leopard cat — hunted the rodents in ancient Chinese settlements.