HISTORY OF CAT BREEDS
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Domestic cats come in a variety of sizes, colors, and coats. Humans are responsible for this variety through a process known as artificial selection. Humans choose which cats to mate in order to produce kittens with the desired feature, such as longer fur or smaller size.
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Selective breeding over many generations can produce animals that increasingly express a desired trait. Also, adults of two different breeds can be bred to form a new hybrid breed. However, many breeds come about through the sudden appearance of an unusual trait, such as the hairlessness of the Sphynx kittens pictured above or the crimped ears of the Scottish Fold.
Although a few breeds, such as the Siamese, Persian, and Korat, have histories that extend back centuries, most are less than 100 years old, and several have been developed over the past twenty years.
In general, the breeds of cats do not show the diversity of size and shape that we see in dogs. Unlike dogs, cats have not been bred for different tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. In addition, many of the differences in head shape among dog breeds are similar to differences we see in the development of a puppy into an adult. Unlike puppies and adult dogs, kittens and adult cats are relatively similar in head shape.
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Produced by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. © Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Foundation This page was made possible by a grant from Friskies PetCare Company and the National Science Foundation. All photographic images contained within these Web pages ARE COPYRIGHTED and may not be reproduced or utilized in any manner without the express written consent of the owner. Original artwork from Daniel Giraud Elliot, A Monograph of the Felidae (1883) Drawing of sphynx cats based on photograph by Chanan, original photograph © Chanan Page design by Jim Angus |