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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genetic study has confirmed what archaeologists have suspected for decades -- the "Cradle of Civilisation" is also the birthplace of the house cat.
All domestic cats, from the scrawny（骨瘦如柴的）strays prowling（巡游）the markets of Asia to the purebred（纯种的）reclining on（依赖）the bed of a doting（溺爱的）owner, descend from a tabby-like sub-species（亚种）living in North Africa, the researchers reported on Thursday.
The near Eastern wildcat, known scientifically as Felis silvestris lybica（草原斑猫）, is the likely ancestor of all the cats whose genes were sampled by the team, they report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
"Domestic cats throughout the entire world had a common ancestor and that common ancestor lived in the Near East. There was no separate domestication（驯养）in Europe or South Africa or China," said Carlos Driscoll of the National Cancer Institute and the University of Oxford.
"The domestication of wild species to complement（补充）human civilization stands as one of the more successful 'biological experiments' ever undertaken," wrote the researchers, led by Dr. Stephen O'Brien of the National Cancer Institute, in their report.
"For cats, the process began over 9,000 years ago as the earliest farmers of the Fertile Crescent（新月沃土）domesticated grains and cereals（谷类）as well as livestock animals." The Fertile Crescent stretches from modern-day Egypt to Iran.
Preserved remains show that cats were valued by Egyptians, and one skeleton unearthed in Cyprus in 2004 showed that people were keeping cats as pets more than 9,000 years ago.
Driscoll, who admits he is a cat person, adds: "You are not civilized without a cat."
Note:
最新研究称世界上所有的猫都源自同一祖先--北非草原斑猫。而对猫的驯化从新月沃土时期就开始了，因此研究人员说：“没有猫的人类无法文明”。
美索不达米亚的另一个称呼为“新月沃土”(Fertile Crescent)，不单土地肥沃，且庄稼丰盛，在当今世上的庄稼排行榜上，营养价值最高的56种庄稼里，有32种就原产于新月沃土。此外，世上最重要的五种家畜里，有四种的野生祖先能在肥沃月牙找到：山羊、 绵羊、牛、狗。如此，新月沃土把发展原始经济所需的营养、交通、劳动力全都拿下，组成一套完备的文明发展套餐。 |
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