Cat evolution has been happening for a long time ... as people who have been on earth. And when people finally showed up, the cat go right on in. Noah may have had cats in the ark he built to the great flood, but the ancestor of what we know as the domestic cat in the world today? It can be confusing to think that everything in the world, is all that has been based on the evidence for the opposite, ie fossil discoveries. I think the story of Noah is intended to convey an understanding of greater significance than a retelling of the seeding of life after a particularly heavy rain. Overall academic place the flood at some point the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC, or 4 - 5 thousand years ago. That was the moment when Egyptians were the domestication of cats in the first place. Did they get on board? And how safe from rats and mice do you feel? Cats were the guardians of food stores in the ark that the whole world depended on to dry land was again under his feet? Koala And how do you reach the ship if it is limited to the continent of Australia? Actually, the best of 5000 years can do is raise a lot of questions. The great equalizer in any debate is time. Time changes everything, including the diametral of a species. As people spread around the world, his skin changed color, eating habits adapted to new environments, clashes with others also in the migration of the precious land that gave birth favorable resources ie abundant prey for hunter-gatherers, then pets and stock food and cereal plants for their livelihood. Survival is unforgiving of failure. Or you survive ... or not. It is a hallmark of the "life" that yearns to survive. Another feature of survival is that individual members of a species, they do not, or rather, do so only for a limited time. A life as we call it. Only large groups or classifications of rocks, trees and other sentient beings, including that of any species can survive indefinitely, if successful. Fossil documentation of the evolution of the cat is very incomplete. There is evidence that the cat up about 200 million years, evolving from the cat when they split from reptiles. From that point, scientists have divided the family of the cats into two groups. Cat cats which includes all modern species of cat and saber-toothed cats, which are all extinct. The 'Family Felidae "cats and cats meet in three generations: Panthera - lions and tigers and ... panthers, or cats that roar. Felis - lynx, ocelot, his soft and other kittens. Jubatus - or the cheetah. They are in a group of his own because he can not retract their claws like all the other cats. Initially, the diagrams of the evolution of cats cat had been divided into two main groups: the large cats and small cats. The distinction is based on the size and shape of their skulls. However, it was discovered that the division was not viable because studies over time showed a gradual transition of the features of the skull from the smallest to largest cats. There essentially was no distinction separately with this approach. Recently, DNA studies have provided information to the evolution of the cat, who migrated from Asia to North America via the Bering Sea land bridge that appeared about 9,000,000 years. These predatory panther had first appeared in Asia about 2 million years before the land bridge was exposed by falling sea level. Cats are considered, along with human beings, the most successful hunters. They have followed the migration of raptors and easily survived the challenges of roaming vast territories as they explore new environments. (Think about a kitten sniffing unexplored bush or a strange new object, either within or outside its territory) Later, several American cat lineages evolved recently returned to Asia across the bridge and each migration, evolutionary forces these cats became a rainbow of species ranging from lions and leopards, lynxes, ocelots and cats today the group home. Where were the people at this time? Well, no where to be found ... however. Anatomically modern humans evolved exclusively in Africa, makes between 100,000 and 200,000 years, according to most experts to deductions based on mitochondrial DNA data. Obviously, the evolution of the cat is long in history to that in this world. Was about 10,000 years ago humans stopped being hunter-gatherers began to cultivate the land, the seeds of the relationship between people and cats began. Then the cats inhabit most of the world except the Arctic, Antarctica, Australia and the inhospitable tundra regions. As the first modern humans emigrated from Africa to Europe and Central Asia, would have been impossible for the cat and human paths do not cross. But it was when people began to cultivate certain species of cats and humans began to have a co-dependent relationship, creating an interesting twist, if not decisive in the evolution of the cat. From the first farmers found that the newly developed food storage, especially storage of grain, became an attraction for small rodents such as rats and mice. Archaeological evidence supports this proposal which discovered the ruins of storage have a preponderance of the skeletons of rodents relics buried in storage. Can easily be deduced that the smaller cats follow their prey to the farms and probably could not resist the concentration of mice and rats feast these silos principles offered. Humans, being an intelligent creature himself, he would have realized the antipathy that rodents and cats had (have) for the rest. An early farmer would have come across a litter of kittens and brought home to try to educate them to protect their hard work in the field. It is very likely that the kittens would first have retained most of their wild nature and maintained a "safe" distance from his human benefactor. But, like generations of cats had more contact with people, especially by human beings as a kitten, which have grown tolerant, and susceptible people to the interactions of the cat, maybe even sleeping in their homes. Speculating in this way, the early stages of domestication may have begun. Two species of cat were more successful in adapting to this new relationship, Felis silvestris and Felis Lybica. Silvestris became more adaptable to the European environment and climate, while preferred Lybica the Middle East. The early Egyptians had many gods and these gods are ascribed qualities such animal. The chief god of Egypt was the sun god Ra, symbolized by a lion. Ra was said to rule the world during the bright day of a chariot of the sun traveling across the sky from dawn to dusk. At night he fell into the darkness that was vulnerable to his enemies. But, having the qualities of a lion who had the vision of a cat that you could see in the dark to protect themselves better. Lieber, was known as the goddess of fertility, birth and family was also symbolized by a cat. Did not escape the Egyptians realize how strong the maternal instinct in cats when caring for her kittens. The cats were buried with the Pharaohs and even cemeteries are given their own people, who had cats in their care. It was after the arrival of the Roman Empire that the cats went to Europe as a pet. Cats also lost their "god" of state and assumed the role more practical than a "pet." Then the triangle cat and mouse-human was fairly well established, and that humans migrated, cultivating the world in its wake, the cat and mouse went along with them. Domestic cats roamed the Spice routes to Asia and sailed the seas of the Americas. Everywhere you have gone the cats have established populations for things not only breeding among their species, but the breeding of native species that met on the road. The result has been a plethora of colors in the layer of skin, long hair and coat patterns to identify the cats today. The effects of domestication of the cat in the evolution can be summarized as follows: Competition Period (before 7000 BC), characterized by wild cats that compete with human hunters and gatherers for birds and small mammals. Commensality period (7000 to 4000 BC), characterized by "semi-national" cats eat insects around and within the first villages. Time of the first domestication (4000 - 3000 BC) to the confinement of cats to cult status Time of full domestication (3,000 BC - present) the popularization of cat conservation and dissemination of cats in Egypt * The close coexistence that cats and people began when the crops began to make and we, as beings established human hunter-gatherers in our adventures can be viewed as a chance encounter. Our early ancestors agriculture would have to solve many problems, the solutions that we now take for granted. However, the cat has not forgotten his contribution to our success and this could even explain its nature seem proud. After all, the interconnectedness of everything in this world is only surpassed by human arrogance to dismiss that idea because they believe in our own mental superiority, which then perpetuates the belief in our disconnection from nature. Fortunately, people are only capable of such rumors. Cats have never forgotten his roots. Roots buried deep in the cat's evolution, domestication and time. There are times when I find myself, like many others I suspect, lost in the loneliness that results in the recognition of the separation of self, or the distance that seems to exist between each of us in this life. This is when you only have to look skyward, marveling at the distance between me and the infernal furnaces are the stars. Even at that great distance, measured in the time it takes light to travel in one year, I am comforted by the knowledge that we are all made of the same material that is spreading from manufacturing to light. We are so interconnected ... however, is blind for granted as we pursue our activities inflation every day life. Returning to this place, my kitty is in my lap and stroked her back while she quietly accepts affection. Does not take much to reverse our roles, and I put in place to become even the back, enjoying the race of my hand on it. And with a little imagination, I can trace the path of evolution of the cat in my mind. * Thanks to Feline Advisory Bureau - Wiltshire, UK