A new study overturns previous findings that domestic cats originated thousands of years earlier.

From urban bodegas to remote islands, cats are everywhere. But determining where and when humans first adopted feral felines has proven tricky.

So far, scientists have focused on Africa and the Middle East, where the wildcats that gave rise to the modern pets are found. Archeological finds and recent work on ancient genetics has led many researchers to hypothesize that stone age farmers domesticated cats nearly 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and brought the rodent-killing kitties along with them as they subsequently moved into Europe.

Now, a new DNA analysis of a sprawling set of ancient feline remains reveal that the precursors to modern housecats originated in North Africa and only reached Europe around 2,000 years ago. The study is published in the journal Science and funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

...read more at nationalgeographic.com