Did any cat breeds develop naturally?

A very nice wild red and white maine coon cat sitting on the pine tree in the winter snowy forest.

Of the more than 600 million cats across the globe, less than 10% belong to a specific breed. But are these purebred cats the result of human intervention, or did some develop naturally?

The answer is more complicated than it might seem. According to Leslie A. Lyons, a cat geneticist at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, most cat breeds developed in the past 140 years as a result of human selection for specific physical traits.