Overview
The domestication of the cat can be traced back to Near Eastern and Egyptian populations of the African wildcat, Felis lybica, from which emerged the domestic cat (F. catus). Both belong to the Felis lineage of the family Felidae, which is thought to have first diversified around 13 to 12 million years ago. Several investigations have shown that all domestic varieties of cats come from a single lineage of F. lybica, although early interactions between wildcats and Neolithic human settlements occurred across a broad geographic range.