New Research Spanish Shipwreck Reveals Evidence of Earliest Known Pet Cats to Arrive in the United States The two felines—one adult, one juvenile—appear to have been cared for by the sailors before the vessel sank in a hurricane in 1559, according to a new study The cats that perished aboard the Emanuel Point II were well-fed and may have served as companions for the sailors. Pexels Cats are beloved members of many families, with 73.8 million of them prowling and purring their way around 42 million American households. But it wasn’t always this way: Domestic cats are relative newcomers to the Americas, having only arrived roughly 500 years ago with European explorers. Now, a new study is offering even more insight into the history of these four-legged felines. Researchers have discovered the remains of two house cats in a 466-year-old Spanish shipwreck near Florida, which are likely the earliest known cats in the United States. They describe their findings in a new paper published in the journal American Antiquity. The remains were found among the wreckage of the Emanuel Point II, a Spanish ship that sank in September 1559 near what is now Pensacola, Florida. The vessel was one of 11 ships that had sailed north from Mexico during an expedition under the command of Tristán de Luna y Arellano. The conquistador’s fleet was anchored near the Spanish settlement of Santa María de Ochuse when a hurricane swept through, causing six of the vessels to sink and another to be driven inland. Between 1992 and 2016, researchers discovered three of the expedition’s shipwrecks. Divers have successfully recovered several artifacts from the ships, including fragments of jars that likely contained olive oil, wine or water. Additionally, they’ve discovered the remains of several critters, including cockroaches, rats and at least two domestic cats. For the new study, scientists took a closer look at the feline remains, which belonged to one adult and one juvenile cat. Though the cats may have been stowaways, they were likely brought onboard intentionally to help keep rodents at bay. Along the way, they probably also became chummy with the sailors. Their friendliness with the crew seems to have paid off: Tests suggest the adult cat was mainly eating fish and meats like pork, poultry and beef. Although it may have hunted the occasional rat or mouse, a “significant proportion” of the cat’s diet came from other sources, the researchers write in the paper. The sailors may have fed the cats because they were so effective at controlling pests that there were none left for them to eat. Or they may have tossed the cats lots of food scraps “out of affection,” the researchers write. Sailors often considered cats to be lucky—especially those with extra toes. “Their primary role may have been as commensal ratters and mousers that kept the onboard rodent population in check,” the researchers write. “This does not, however, preclude the possibility that these cats were well-liked and cared for by the sailors.” The dietary findings also likely rule out other possibilities, such as that the cats were brought on the ship to serve as food for the sailors or were being raised for their fur. These appear to have been relatively common uses for cats in some parts of medieval Europe, the researchers note in the paper. “A Spanish cookbook from 1560 includes a recipe for roasted cat, while cat skeletons from medieval sites across Europe often bear cut marks, suggesting they were skinned for their furs or butchered for their meats,” writes IFLScience’s Tom Hale. “Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case here.” Scholars think cats were first domesticated in the Middle East roughly 12,000 years ago. By around 400 B.C.E., they had spread throughout the Mediterranean region. The first cats to travel to the Americas may have sailed on Christopher Columbus’ ships, though the animals are not mentioned in the voyages’ records. Archaeologists have discovered cat remains in present-day Haiti, where Columbus landed in 1492. But since the explorer never set foot on the mainland of North America, the first cats likely arrived via other expeditions—like the one led by Luna y Arellano. Genetic testing confirmed the cats aboard the Emanuel Point II had European ancestry. “The Spanish expeditions in Florida were really the first opportunities for domestic cats to reach what is today the U.S.," lead author Martin Welker, an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Arizona, tells Live Science’s Margherita Bassi. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.