A brand new research has revealed that 1000's of years of residing with people has seen cats' brains shrink "considerably".
The research, revealed in Royal Society Open Science, in contrast the craniums of home cats with these of their closest ancestors, African wildcats.
"Our information point out that home cats certainly, have smaller cranial volumes (implying smaller brains)," the research authors wrote.
The numbers confirmed home cats craniums have been as much as 25 per cent smaller than their wild cousins.
However cats aren't alone, with the researchers noting comparable traits in different home animals, together with canine and rabbits.
Even livestock akin to sheep, have suffered an identical discount.
"Lowered mind measurement, in contrast with wild people, is argued to be a key attribute of domesticated mammal species, and sometimes cited as a key part of a putative 'domestication syndrome'," the researchers wrote.
Comedy Wildlife Picture Awards winners topped
The discount is attributed to a deficiency in neural crest cells, which develop within the embryonic stage and contribute to a variety of bodily developments.
"Choice for tameness within the domestication of animals might have precipitated a downregulation within the migration and proliferation of neural crest cells, resulting in decreased excitability and concern," the researchers wrote.
"Nonetheless, this downregulation can also trigger correlated modifications to morphology, stress response and mind measurement."
Though the implications should not overly dire for housecats, the researchers identified that hybrid wildcat-housecat crosses have been additionally born with smaller skulls, resulting in the necessity for additional analysis on whether or not this introduced a hazard to wild animal populations.