Cats and Dogs

Studies found that, in the ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped, and the goddess Bastet often depicted in cat form, sometimes taking on the war-like aspect of a lioness. The Greek historian Herodotus reported that killing a cat was forbidden, and when a household cat died, the entire family mourned and shaved their eyebrows. Families took their dead cats to the sacred city of Bubastis, where they were embalmed and buried in sacred repositories. On the other hand, paleontologists and archaeologists have determined that about 60 million years ago a small mammal, like a weasel, lived in the environs of what are now parts of Asia. It is was called Miacis, the genus that became the ancestor of the animals known today as canids; dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes. Miacis did not leave direct descendants, but doglike canids evolved from it. By about 30 to 40 million years ago Miacis had evolved into the first true dog called, Cynodictis.