How Pets Became a Evolution THING

Wondered what your pet evolved from?

Dog's Evolution: Wolves:

The two main hypotheses for the evolution of wolves are:

• Humans collected young pups from dens, raised them, found them useful, and bred them selectively for certain traits; and

• Wolves domesticated themselves. Mech and Janssens wrote that this “hypothesis claims that wolves that were less anxious and aggressive increasingly frequented human camp disposal areas and obtained food there, but neither harmed humans nor were harassed by them. Hypothetically, these wolves then became domesticated.”

Scientists generally agree that dog domestication began some 15,000-20,000 years ago, making them the first domesticated animal. There are many reasons why we may have used young pups, mainly for pets and companions but also for hunting, guarding, cleaning up settlement debris and as food.

Cat's Evolution:

True domestication (or ‘taming’ of cats) was previously believed to have happened in Egypt around 3600-4700 years ago. Cat skulls found in Egyptian cat burial grounds however More recent evidence shows that feline domestication probably began around 10,000 years ago or more in the Middle East, in the region of the Fertile Crescent. The earliest record of domestication comes from a cat found deliberately buried with its owner in Cyprus, around 9,500 years ago. It’s assumed that domestication would have begun some time before this, as there were no native cats in Cyprus.

In Egypt around 2,900 years ago, thousands of cats were bred near temples in ancient Egypt, sacrificed to the goddess Bastet, mummified and buried along with their caregivers so that the person could inhabit the cat’s body during the afterlife. This suggests the Egyptians were actively breeding cats. 

Either way, we love them!