[Taxacom] domestication of the house cat

Tue Jul 3 17:50:10 CDT 2007

OK folks,

Here it is: http://www.dochterland.org/cat_domestication.htm

Enjoy! My cat loves it.

Cheers,

Jan

Donat Agosti wrote:

>Neither I have seen the article, sine you do not get it through normal
>online subscription until the next couple of days. But it shows once more
>the dismal state of how we operate: We know, that this information is only
>one or two mouse clicks away, but we can't get it. Not even we from large
>scientific institutions, not to speak somebody from the UAE who might be
>interested in the story unfolding in his backyard.
>
>At the same time these journals have such a well organized PR apparatus,
>obviously geared more towards PR then the real dissemination of scientific
>information.
>
>Once more a reason to sign up on Open Access, at least the green road and
>make your scientific papers accessible through self archive, and in the
>longer run through a change of of science policy, such as happening in the
>US National Institute of Health or through member signing up the Berlin
>Declaration on Open Access.
>
>This all needs you, dear colleagues to make it happen: start self archiving,
>ask your institution to help doing this. 
>
>Donat
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Zander [mailto:Richard.Zander at mobot.org] 
>Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 10:23 PM
>To: Donat Agosti; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>Subject: RE: [Taxacom] domestication of the house cat
>
>Well, let's see. I've not seen the actual article, but neither has most
>of us since we need subscriptions to the paper and journals involved.
>
>Let's extrapolate from what we know just from the posting on Taxacom.
>Females are cited, so mitochondrial loci are involved, which track
>genealogies of females (unless you have some kind of mitochondrial
>capture). Doubtless there were too few data in the study or the
>sequences just did not give the right resolution, so the domesticated
>cat clade is really a multifurcation of five branches. So where did the
>branches end? Doubtless near the Libyan clade. How much nearer the
>Libyan clade than some other clade? This is the nut of the article yet
>the word "five" is mentioned (actually denoting bad resolution) and no
>other mathematical term, such as the bootstrap value evaluating the
>closeness of domestic and Libyan variants, is given. 
>
>Well, probably the domestic cat is pretty well supported as near the
>Libyan wild version, but we don't know for sure without reading the
>article. That's for the female. What if the male was from the European
>or any other variant? Half the genome is then contributed by this other
>variant.
>
>My book on cats says my cat Lulubelle is a combination of European and
>African wild types, based on morphology I think. Is this wrong or right?
>
>
>Even if the domestic cat is truly in all respects most closely related
>to the Libyan wild cat, my point is that we have a tendency to accept as
>essentially correct statements that have considerable uncertainty.
>Considerable in this case can mean not much but enough that scientists
>should not act on the assertion. 
>
>In other fields that use statistics and math, like psychology and
>ecology, a low level of uncertainty is tolerated (5 % or 1 %). We have
>not yet advanced to this state in systematics even though we laud and
>respect articles on phylogenetics based on statistics and that involve
>such mathematical expressions as "five." 
>
>
>******************************
>Richard H. Zander 
>Voice: 314-577-0276
>Missouri Botanical Garden
>PO Box 299
>St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
>richard.zander at mobot.org
>Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/
>and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
>For FedEx and UPS use:
>Missouri Botanical Garden
>4344 Shaw Blvd.
>St. Louis, MO 63110
>******************************
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-
>>bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Donat Agosti
>>Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 1:59 PM
>>To: 'Donat Agosti'; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>Subject: Re: [Taxacom] domestication of the house cat
>>
>>p.S. the cat made it even into the op/eds of NYT - a very unusual
>>
>success
>
>>for a science story!
>>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/opinion/02mon4.html?em&ex=1183608000&e
>n=
>
>>17
>>6a3b5340060551&ei=5087%0A
>>
>>
>>Donat
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Donat Agosti
>>Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 11:32 AM
>>To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>Subject: [Taxacom] domestication of the house cat
>>
>>Talking about inbreeding: just five wild cat females at the base of
>>
>the
>
>>domesticated cats, and that not in Egypt.
>>
>>
>>
>>Here a comment in NYT ,
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/science/29cat.html?em
>>
><http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/science/29cat.html?em&ex=1183608000&e
>n=
>
>>50
>>e07737cb5b7f64&ei=5087%0A>
>>
>&ex=1183608000&en=50e07737cb5b7f64&ei=5087%0A
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious
>>
>wildcat
>
>>crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the
>>
>first to
>
>>domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many
>>
>predators
>
>>in
>>the region, such as hyenas and larger cats.
>>
>>The rodents that infested the settlers' homes and granaries were
>>sufficient
>>prey. Seeing that she was earning her keep, the settlers tolerated
>>
>her,
>
>>and
>>their children greeted her kittens with delight.
>>
>>At least five females of the wildcat subspecies known as Felis
>>
>silvestris
>
>>lybica accomplished this delicate transition from forest to village.
>>
>And
>
>>from these five matriarchs all the world's 600 million house cats are
>>descended.
>>
>>A scientific basis for this scenario has been established by Carlos A.
>>Driscoll of the National Cancer Institute
>>
><http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/nat
>io
>
>>na
>>l_cancer_institute/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  and his colleagues. He
>>spent
>>more than six years collecting species of wildcat in places as far
>>
>apart
>
>>as
>>Scotland, Israel, Namibia and Mongolia. He then analyzed the DNA of
>>
>the
>
>>wildcats and of many house cats and fancy cats.
>>
>>And here the original source
>>http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1139518
>>
>>
>>
>>Donat
>>
>>
>>
>>Dr. Donat Agosti
>>
>>Science Consultant
>>
>>Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History and Naturmuseum
>>
>der
>
>>Burgergemeinde Bern
>>
>>Email: agosti at amnh.org
>>
>>Web:  <http://antbase.org/> http://antbase.org
>>
>>Blog:  <http://biodivcontext.blogspot.com/>
>>http://biodivcontext.blogspot.com/
>>
>>Skype: agostileu
>>
>>CV <http://antbase.org/agosticv_2003.html>
>>
>>Current Location <http://antbase.org/agosti_loc_bern.kmz>
>>
>>Dalmaziquai 45
>>
>>3005 Bern
>>
>>Switzerland
>>
>>+41-31-351 7152
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jan Bosselaers
"Dochterland", R. novarumlaan 2
B-2340 Beerse, Belgium               tel / fax 32-14-615896
home: dochterland at pandora.be  /  hortipes at dochterland.org    
work: jbossela at janbe.jnj.com
web: http://www.dochterland.org/ or http://wyith.ch/home/dochterland.org/

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