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New DNA analysis shows how cats spread around the world (2016)
- goodpoint 4y ago
- dang 4y ago"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ("could care less" is an idiom - no doubt not one that's used everywhere)
- jjtheblunt 4y agoit's also a spelling of "couldn't care less" spoken colloquially with the "'nt" swallowed, i think, and many just repeat what they hear so it becomes the idiom, to your point.
- Cous_Cous_Cous 4y agoThis is a grammatically correct sentence. It is a misuse of an idiom but semantic/idiomatic checks are not trivial.
- mikrl 4y agoIn my experience cats are remarkably aloof and seem like they couldn’t care less about me if they tried. More social animals such as dogs seem to care a bit too much about what I’m doing, and I feel like they could care less. </pedantry>
- rsynnott 4y agohttps://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/could-couldnt-care-less https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/could-couldnt-... As with the use of 'literally' to mean 'figuratively', it's now fairly standard and acceptable.
- angst_ridden 4y agoSurprised the tabby mutation is so recent. I could have sworn I'd seen older depictions in Buddhist art from India, but I'm probably confusing images representing tigers.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoCats can always care even less than you previously thought possible.
- tgflynn 4y ago> Researchers recently traced their spread around the world to their relations with farmers and travels with merchants and Vikings ... > Geigl’s team discovered that cats with a mitochondrial lineage from Egypt began appearing in Bulgaria, Turkey and sub-Saharan Africa between the fourth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. That sounds much too early for Vikings. The connection with maritime trade makes sense but I don't see where Vikings fit into the picture.
- macintux 4y agoThe page is ambiguous, but I’m fairly confident they’re not saying the 2nd wave ended in the 4th century A.D.
- tgflynn 4y agoThen a better way to describe the "second wave" would probably be along the lines of "sailors have been spreading cats around the world since about 400 BCE". I think I've heard of islands that had no cats until they were visited by European ships in the 19th century, so it's a trend that likely didn't end until the whole world was colonized.
- jjtheblunt 4y agoThe next sentence says : In fact, a cat with the Egyptian mitochondrial DNA was found in a Viking site in North Germany dating between 700 and 1000 A.D. which means by the time Vikings were Vikings they already had cats, and could bring them along for their rides?
- sillyquiet 4y agoWay too early. From the dates, its more likely to be Roman sailors and/or Roman-affiliated traders.
- tgflynn 4y agoI can't help but feel that the world would have been a better place if intelligence had arisen among felines rather than primates.
- jjtheblunt 4y agowhat if it did among both?
- tgflynn 4y agoI doubt they'd get along and I think the fault would be more on the monkeys side than the cats.
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y agoI can't help but feel that the world would have been a worse place if intelligence had arisen among any obligate carnivore species, such as felines.
- tgflynn 4y agoAll biological life feeds on death. It's a self-devouring hell.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoWhat a wild take. Both factually incorrect and overly negative. Is it so hellish that plants feed on the slow death of stars? Death is a part of life, and it is beautiful that it gives rise to other life.
- someweirdperson 4y agoMost feeds on the living, death is just a consequence if being consumed.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoThis is science news reporting based on a conference presentation. It appears that the work was published in a couple papers following the analysis. I recommend checking them out for the actual results and informative figures. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02397046/file/CatDomestication_Geigl%2526Grange_HAL.pdf https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02397046/file/CatDomest... Figure 5A shows the dispersion of cat genotypes over time. Figure 7 shows some great illustrations of Tabby cat coat patterns drawn by the author, also demonstrating how serious science doesn't need to be dry and stuffy. I love the faces on the illustrated cats https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03661986/document https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03661986/document This paper builds on the prior work and clarifies a lot of the questions of historical context asked in this thread regarding Vikings, ect.
- sillyquiet 4y agoSpeaking of cats and the Viking age, cats played a prominent and mixed role in early medieval Scandinavia: https://www.academia.edu/42251199/The_Warrior_and_the_Cat_A_Re_Evaluation_of_the_Roles_of_Domestic_Cats_in_Viking_Age_Scandinavia https://www.academia.edu/42251199/The_Warrior_and_the_Cat_A_... Pull quotes from the summary: "Cat bones from many trading centres show cut marks from skinning and highlight the value of cat fur. In contrast, the occurrence of cats in male burials points rather to a function as exotic and prestigious pets. "
- ComputerGuru 4y ago> For decades, researchers believed cats were domesticated in Egypt around 4,000 years ago, writes Stephanie Pappas at LiveScience. But a 9,500-year-old human burial in Cyprus that included cat bones found in 2004 upended that idea, and another study from 2014 indicates that domestic cats were bred in upper Egypt 6,000 years ago. For comparison, estimates place dog domestication as having taken place anywhere between 29,000 and 14,000 years ago.