Toxoplasma gondii, which needs to reproduce in felines, can infect any warm blooded animal. It’s been observed to increase risk taking behaviour which could have helped to contribute to the development of human society.
Well, they certainly helped keep our granaries pest-free.
(Also, when people started killing cats instead of rats it probably had quite negative consequences for civilization… though, to be fair, the black death probably set the right circumstances for the rise of the middle class, and the renaissance… so lose some win some, I suppose.)
What if cats are responsible for human civilization by domesticating us?
Toxoplasma gondii, which needs to reproduce in felines, can infect any warm blooded animal. It’s been observed to increase risk taking behaviour which could have helped to contribute to the development of human society.
Well, they certainly helped keep our granaries pest-free.
(Also, when people started killing cats instead of rats it probably had quite negative consequences for civilization… though, to be fair, the black death probably set the right circumstances for the rise of the middle class, and the renaissance… so lose some win some, I suppose.)