Maurizio de Martino, Bea De Cupere, Valentina Rovelli, Patrizia Serventi, B. Mouraud, Marica Baldoni, Tullia Di Corcia, Simon Geiger, Francesca Alhaique, Paulo C. Alves, Hijlke Buitenhuis, Emanuela Ceccaroni, Eugenio Cerilli, Jacopo De Grossi Mazzorin, Cleia Detry, Marion Dowd, Ivana Fiore, Lionel Gourichon, Idoia Grau-Sologestoa, Hans Christian Küchelmann, Günther Karl Kunst, Mary M. McCarthy, Roberto Miccichè, Claudia Minniti, Marta Moreno García, Nemanja Mrđić, Vedat Onar, Tarek Oueslati, Marcus Parrag, Beatriz Pino Uría, Giuseppe Romagnoli, Massimo Rugge, Leonardo Salari, Konstantina Saliari, Ana Beatriz Santos, Ulrich Schmölcke, Andrea Sforzi, Gabriele Soranna, Nikolaï Spassov, Antonio Tagliacozzo, Vincenzo Tinè, Simon Trixl, Sonja Vuković, Ursula Wierer, B. Wilkens, Sean Doherty, Naomi Sykes, Laurent Frantz, Federica Mattucci, Romolo Caniglia, Greger Larson, Joris Peters, Wim Van Neer, Claudio Ottoni
. Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful adaptation to anthropogenic environments. Uncertainty remains regarding whether domestic cats originated in the Levant, Egypt, or elsewhere in the natural range of African wildcats. The timing and circumstances of their dispersal into Europe are also unknown. In this study, the analysis of 87 ancient and modern cat genomes suggests that domestic cats did not spread to Europe with Neolithic farmers. Conversely, they were introduced to Europe around 2000 years ago, probably from North Africa. In addition, a separate earlier introduction (first millennium before the common era) of wildcats from Northwest Africa may have been responsible for the present-day wild population in Sardinia.