The lineage of the proud and, some say, supercilious domestic cat goes back 130,000 years to five female wildcats, researchers have discovered.

Analysis of DNA has estabished that Near Eastern wildcats, Felix silvestris lybica, and the domestic cat share the same maternal ancestors and are indistinguishable genetically from each other.

For an estimated 120,000 years, the predators stalked North Africa and the Middle East until humans settled down to agriculture. The wild cats were attracted by mice and rats lurking around grain stores.

Andrew Kitchener, of the National Museums Scotland, said: “The genetic evidence would suggest that they are the same and that the domestic cat is merely a domesticated version of the Near Eastern wildcat.”

The discovery of at least five maternal ancestors from up to 131,000 years ago makes the domestic cat much older than previously realised.

The research attempts to solve the old argument of where the domestic cat originated and which subspecies of wildcat it is most closely related to. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that it was the Near Eastern Wildcat rather than the European wildcat, Felis silvestris silvestris, which is closest to modern cats.

In defining the origins of the domestic cat, researchers found wildcats are formed of five subspecies.

What was previously regarded as the African wildcat is now considered to be split between the Near Eastern subspecies, which inhabits parts of the Middle East and probably used to be in North Africa, and the South African wildcat, Fs. cafra.

Genetic assessments place the Chinese desert cat, Fs. bieti, in the wildcat family, though many scientists remain to be convinced because of the differences in body shape.

The European wildcat, including the Scottish wildcat and the Chinese desert cat, are the two oldest survivors of the two million-year lineage, having separated 230,000 years ago. The other wildcats descended from the European cats.

However, the research found the sand cat, Fs. margarita – native to the deserts of Africa and Asia – lay outside the wildcat lineage.

The earliest evidence of cats being domesticated comes from a grave dating to about 9,500 years ago in Cyprus where a cat was found buried beside a human.

Professor David Macdonald, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford, said: “In our studies of mito-chondrial DNA from these cats we found five distinct types dating back a hundred thousand years prior to any archaeological record of cat domestication. These appear to come from at least five female cats from the Near East whose descendants have been transported across the world by humans.”

For the study scientists looked at genetic samples from 979 domestic cats and their wild relatives.

Contemporary samples were taken as well as examples stored in museums in Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

By identifying the DNA of each subspecies and domestic cat, scientists also hope to improve the prospects of wildcats remaining in the wild, especially those in Scotland, estimated to number only 300-400.

Professor Macdonald added: “In Scotland we’ve been striving to find a genetic marker to identify Scottish wildcats, and now we have one. Our next move is to use this marker to find out how many wildcats are left in Scotland.”

The findings were reported in the journal Science.

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