How did the domestic cat appear?

Cats are small, shaggy (sometimes hairless) creatures, wild and very cunning. Usually they do not build their own house, but live in people's houses. For some unknown reason, people began to attribute supernatural powers to cats, ranging from healing properties to misfortune if a black cat crossed the road.

The domestic cat is a domesticated form of the small carnivorous mammal of the cat family, the Middle Eastern wild cat. According to modern data, other subspecies of small wild cats did not participate in the process of cat domestication. According to genetic studies, all domestic cats descend from representatives of the wild Middle Eastern (Libyan) cat subspecies. The domestication of the cat occurred approximately 9,500 years ago in the Middle East in the Fertile Crescent region, where the earliest human civilizations originated and were located. The domestication of cats began with the transition of humans to a sedentary lifestyle and with the beginning of the development of agriculture, when surplus food appeared and the need arose to preserve it from rodents.

The word cat in other languages of the world

Russian - cat, English - cat, Bulgarian - kotka, Vietnamese - con meo, Dutch - kat, Danish - kat, Indonesian - kucing, Spanish - gat, Italian - gatta, Catalan - gat, Latin - cattus, Latvian - kakis, Lithuanian - kate, German - katze, Norwegian - katt, Polish - kot, Portuguese - gato, Romanian - pisica, Serbian - mačka, Slovak - macka, Tagalog - pusa, Ukrainian - kіshka, Finnish - kissa, French - chatte, Croatian - macka , Czech - kocka, Swedish - katt.

Cat skeleton

Cats have amazing agility due to their flexibility and mobility of the skeleton. They are able to move in narrow spaces, climb trees and fences, and walk along narrow cornices. They jump very deftly and gracefully, pushing off with their hind legs with great force, which throws them high into the air. What makes them so dexterous? The fact is that cats have 40 more bones than humans, which means more joints, which makes their body much more flexible and allows them to demonstrate miracles of acrobatics.

The cat's spine consists of 5 sections - cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral and caudal.

The forelimbs consist of the shoulder, forearm, and hand. The hind limbs consist of the thigh, lower leg, and hand. The humerus of the forelimb is attached to the rib cage using the forelimb girdle (scapulae). With the help of the hind limb girdle, consisting of the pelvic bones fused with the sacral spine, the hind limbs are attached to the spine. In cats, as well as in other mammals, the forelimb bends backward at the elbow joint and forward at the knee joint. The skull consists of the brain and facial sections. The brain is located in the medulla. The skeleton performs the functions of supporting the body and protecting internal organs.

Cats are digitigrade animals, as they move on their tiptoes. The forelimbs are 5-toed, the hind limbs are 4-toed. The limbs of most cats are of medium length, very strong, with sharp claws. Such paws provide a powerful and swift leap towards prey. All species, except the cheetah and the Sumatran cat, have retractable claws. The last phalanx of each finger is the basis for the claw. A cat can adjust the position of its claws. The bones, which run through the five toes of the front paws and the four toes of the hind paws, are necessary for hunting and defense, when the claws come out of the leathery “sheath” with the help of muscles and tendons. A cat retracts its claws when there is no need to attack or defend, so they do not become dull. The exception is the 1st finger: it is rudimentary, that is, it grows separately, and the claw on it cannot be removed. When walking, a cat brings forward its left front and right hind paws at the same time, or vice versa. On the paws of cats there are formations in the form of pads, equipped with sweat glands and sensitive nerve endings, which allows the cat to move carefully and silently

The dental system is of a pronounced carnivorous type. An adult cat has 30 teeth, including 12 incisors, 10 minor molars, 4 canines and 4 main molars. In kittens, milk teeth are replaced by permanent ones by seven months, and the kitten swallows the fallen milk teeth. The tongue is covered with small, pointed horny papillae, which help cats scrape meat from bones and clean fur.

The tail of most species is long. The color ranges from grayish to reddish-brown, usually with stripes, spots, speckles or rosettes. The hairline is low, more fluffy in northern and high-mountain species. Among the sense organs, hearing and vision are better developed; sense of smell is weaker. Cats are able to hear very high-pitched sounds - with a frequency of up to 80,000 Hz (humans up to 20,000 Hz).

Whiskers to the right and left of the nasal openings and supraorbital stripes help the cat sense the space around it. Movable and erect ears, as well as a huge number of nerve endings in the auditory nerves, endowed the cat with excellent hearing. One should also take into account its ability to pick up sound in the ultrasonic range, which is used when hunting mice, as well as when a kitten communicates with its mother. At birth, kittens emit a thin squeak, and it is known that kittens usually call their mother with ultrasonic signals. Some adult cats, especially those who rarely train their voices, may also squeak instead of meow

System of signs and self-expression

When extremely angry, cats may hiss or even howl. In this case, the animal usually arches its back and tail, raises its fur and presses its ears to its head. Some cats are capable of producing a threatening, dog-like growl that is a sign of extreme anger and irritation. Claw scratches can easily become infected. For this reason, a cat scratch that has just been applied to the human body immediately needs disinfection.

The tail is also an important means of expression in cats: a calm tail curled around the body or held high signifies a peaceful mood. A cat may twitch the tip of its tail when excited or interested. When angry, a cat's tail begins to beat.

When the cat being petted is satisfied, it can make alternate forward movements with its front paws, inserting and releasing its claws. This movement is called the "milk step" - this movement stimulates kittens to release milk from their mother's nipples when feeding. In this way, an adult cat “remembers her childhood” when, as a kitten, she sucked her mother’s milk. Sometimes the “milk step” is accompanied by a distinct smacking of the cat’s lips. Some cats do the “milk step” when they are petted, others may do it on their own by burying their muzzle in some fluffy thing, but in any case it means that the cat is very happy. In some cats, the “milk step” can be provoked by imitation using the fingers of the hand - if the cat is in a favorable mood, it may respond with a reciprocal movement. The milky step is usually accompanied by a purr. In addition, if a cat sleeps with its legs stretched out and spread, then when stroking it, many cats tend to stretch out even more, releasing their claws and sometimes making sounds similar to purring. Although purring itself does not always mean that the cat is happy.