A living model for a cat using hominid:

One way to find out how primates get along with cats is to ask one. Koko, the famous sign language using gorilla, has long had pet cats. Many films of Koko show her playing with her pet kitten with a great deal of love and tenderness. Koko often talks about her first cat, Smoky, which was killed by a car years ago. Koko's "Mom" and translator, Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson reports that Koko still mourns for this long dead cat. I am sure that if Koko's present cat is allowed to roam free, it will be bringing home mice and other prey, just as almost all free roaming house cats do. As a gorilla has about the same mental capability as an australopithecine, Koko and her kitten can serve as a model for the early domestication of the ancestors of the modern cat by members of genus Australopithecus and/or Ardipithecus over four million years ago.

No other hominine evolutionary theory can present a living model. There is no ape living in the savanna. There is no ape living in an aquatic environment. But there is an ape living with a cat. As a gorilla, Koko would not think of eating a mouse that her cat brought her, but there is little doubt that human ancestors were not so choosy. As famed writer Farley Mowat once proved while on a field trip as a student biologist, even modern humans can survive quite well on a diet of nothing but mice.

Two questions remain:

1. How did it all start?

   The Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT) states that the very early hominines had a semi-aquatic phase in which they lived in a littoral area and fed largely on fish and shellfish. PPCT is fully compatible with AAT. We all know that cats love fish. It could be that during our semi-aquatic phase, when we were eating a lot of fish, cats first came into contact with human ancestors, by stealing leftover fish heads. A bond was formed between feline and hominine, with the hominine supplying most of the food at first, and then after moving out into the savanna, cats supplying most of the food.

2. What did the cats get out of it?

   Basically the same thing they get out of humans today, minus the canned cat food. Protection for their kittens would have been the most important, but the cats would have also appreciated a warm body to curl up next to at night, and something that only a hominine can provide, fingers to scratch that spot on the neck that can't be gotten to any other way. As any cat owner will tell you, the bond between cat and human is a deep one that goes beyond physical needs.

I propose the following timeline:

• 4.4 mya Ardipithecus ramidus, a non cat using woodland biped makes first contact with Felis attica, the ancestor of all modern small cats, which was about the same size as a modern house cat.

• 4.2 to 3.9 mya Australopithecus anamensis, a transitional species, learns to make full use of the cat which enabled it's move onto the savanna.

• 3.9 to 2.4 mya Australopithecus afarensis is fully adapted to life on the savanna using cats for subsistence, defense and shelter. Those Felis attica's in association with hominines evolve into Felis lunensis. Wild Felis attica's evolve into various species of small wild cats.

• 2.4 to 1.8 mya Homo habilis, another transitional species, loses the use of cats and is forced to find other means of support. During this period, other cat using hominines such a A. africanus and the robust australopithecines failed to make the transition to non-cat life and go extinct. This population crash of Felis lunensis forces the evolution of Felis silvestris, the modern African Wild Cat, as the surviving cats return to the wild.

• 1.8 mya Homo erectus is now fully adapted to life without cats. Felis silvestris is fully adapted to life without hominines.

• 4000 years ago Homo sapiens re-domesticate the cat. Felis silvestris evolves into Felis catus, the modern domestic cat.

I am looking forward to having my Pliocene Pussy Cat Theory receiving the same respect and consideration that the Aquatic Ape Theory has received.

Copyright © Lorenzo L. Love
August 8, 1998