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Ancient cat fossils, paw prints recovered from beneath Texas Hill Country by: Eric Henrikson, KXAN News, Nexstar Media Inc., Texas, January 13, 2023 https://www.kxan.com/news/science/ancient-cat-fossils-paw-prints-recovered-from-beneath-texas-hill-country/ Yours, Paul H.

I went out to upstate NY to look for fossils this morning. I will post my finds in a couple days. I am working to photograph my finds, and my lab assistant is assisting me with the investigation. She has never been outdoors and loves smelling all the smells she can smell. regards

Whilst preparing a patch of ground for planting, I collected these assorted bones. I eat a lot of meat but do not recognise any of them. Some have been cleanly cut by a saw, maybe for soup. Looks like an electric saw not a hand one tho, as the cuts are very clean. Some ribs may be cat or dog they are not rabbit. The oldest house in the area is only 150 years or so. The condition of the bones, I would say they are around 100 years old. Some of the short stocky ones, must be a small powerful animal, so I was thinkng wombat. Maybe some are vealers, Ive not seen too many small cow bones tho. One rib is a cow I reckon, but I dont see the usual lamb bones Id expect to find. Not many small bones either, knuckles and digits and such that come with shop bought meat. I want to check that none are human before the tomatoes get too big.

Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows National Geographic, June 19,2017 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/domesticated-cats-dna-genetics-pets-science/ Ancient DNA reveals role of Near East and Egypt in cat domestication, KU Leuven, June 19, 2017 http://nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2017/domestication-of-the-cat-ancient-dna-reveals-significant-role-of-the-near-east-and-egypt https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170619125825.htm "DNA found at archaeological sites reveals that the origins of our domestic cat are in the Near East and ancient Egypt. Cats were domesticated by the first farmers some 10,000 years ago. They later spread across Europe and other parts of the world via trade hub Egypt. The DNA analysis also revealed that most of these ancient cats had stripes: spotted cats were uncommon until the Middle Ages." the paper is: Claudio Ottoni, Wim Van Neer, Bea De Cupere, Julien Daligault, Silvia Guimaraes, Joris Peters, Nikolai Spassov, Mary E. Prendergast, Nicole Boivin, Arturo Morales-Muñiz, Adrian Bălăşescu, Cornelia Becker, Norbert Benecke, Adina Boroneant, Hijlke Buitenhuis, Jwana Chahoud, Alison Crowther, Laura Llorente, Nina Manaseryan, Hervé Monchot, Vedat Onar, Marta Osypińska, Olivier Putelat, Eréndira M. Quintana Morales, Jacqueline Studer, Ursula Wierer, Ronny Decorte, Thierry Grange, Eva-Maria Geigl. The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2017; 1 (7): 0139 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0139 Online archive: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/09/080028 PDF file: http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/10/09/080028.full.pdf Yours, Paul H.

Hey I just want to say that this forum(and it's members) are awesome. So thanks for that! I never would have known I even had a fossil if it wasn't for this site.. on top of that, even as a person who knows nothing about any of this you guys have never made me feel less-than for not knowing things, and have been nothing but informative, professional , helpful, etc etc you get it... so ....thanks!!! I seriously love fossils even more now that I know what a wonderful group of people are my peers!