A study published in the online edition of the journal Science said cats prowled the Middle East at least 9,500 years ago, The Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

"This was much earlier than Egyptian civilization," said geneticist Carlos Driscoll, lead author of the study and a graduate student at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford.

Researchers took genetic samples from 979 cats, including animals at fancy cat shows, feral cats and wildcats trapped in Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The cats were sorted into six categories according to 36 DNA markers.

Domestic cats fell into the same group as Fertile Crescent wildcats, the newspaper said.

The dilution of wildcat populations by DNA from housecats is the biggest threat to wildcat survival, the International Society for Endangered Cats said.

Driscoll said Scottish wildcats are endangered because of extensive interbreeding with feral domestic cats. He hopes to use the research to identify full-blood Scottish wildcats for breeding and conservation programs, the Times said.