Cats
for breakage). Similar mutation have occurred spontaneously in the USA. There are also
purported Bobcat hybrids that have inherited the short tail from the wild parent. According to
leading feline geneticists, the genes governing tail conformation are located on a mutation
hotspot.
According to an earlir anatomist, Sir Richard Owen, and to Professor H N Moseley, the kink
in the Siamese's tail (a mild form of the bobtailed trait) was the relic of a prehensile tail,
possibly inherited from civet ancestors (though neither civets nor genets had prehensile tails)!
Others asserted that the kink was due to intercrossing the Siamese with the "common strain"
however Lilian J Veley wrote in 1926 that this could be discounted since there was no other
cat known in Siam, "common" or otherwise that had ever possessed an original kink, making
it a folly to try to eradicate the trait. Presumably Ms Veley had not encountered the numerous