Evidence of 'missing link' in domestication of cats found in China

Archaeologists in China have unearthed the first clear evidence of cats living among humans as semi-domesticated mousers about 5,300 years ago.

The discovery provides the "missing link" in the story of the domestication of the world's most popular pet, experts said.

It supports the long-held view that cats began their symbiotic relationship with people following the advent of agriculture, many thousands of years after dogs were tamed by nomadic hunter-gatherers.

But an ancient Chinese village was the last place researchers expected to find such evidence, said the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This was a very unexpected find," said study co-author Fiona Marshall, a zooarchaeologist at Washington University in the American city of St Louis.

Today, every domestic cat in the world - whether it's howling in a back alley, starring in a YouTube video or climbing into an empty box in your living room - is descended from a single sub-species of Middle Eastern wildcat known as Felis silvestris lybica.