Are Maine Coons descended from Norwegian Forest Cats?

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My answer is that Maine Coons are not descended from Norwegian Forest Cats. Although, you may hear different answers from different people because the early or originating history of the Maine Coon is still a mystery. 

MC versus NFC
MC versus NFC. The montage is by MikeB from pics in the public domain at this time.

Perhaps the simplest answer is the best one namely that the early settlers to America brought some longhaired cats with them from mainland Europe and England (sometimes as ships' cats) and these became pet cats in America along the eastern seaboard. And then, people realised that they were wonderful looking barn and farm cats and decided to selectively breed them to refine them to turn them into show cats. This last stage occurred in the middle of the 1800s and over the intervening more than 150 years the cat breed has been refined through artificial selection to the point where it is today: in some cases bred to extreme so that they are larger with more pronounced muzzles and ears.

But in this story, the Norwegian Forest Cat does not feature. The moggies of Norway were turned into a purebred cat which they called the Norwegian Forest Cat in 1930 and they first appeared in cat shows in 1938 apparently. It's important to note that before that point they were not selectively bred but randomly bred just like any other random bred (moggy) cat existing today in the community.

And as the Maine Coon probably originates from imported European longhaired cats from the 1600s, the Maine Coon theoretically at least has European moggy cat genes in it. Perhaps the same genes as the Norwegian moggies at that time and before both the Maine Coon and the Norwegian Forest Cat became purebred cats.

It is a very complicated story made more so by the fact that when you start selectively breeding cats you lose their early history anyway. Often there is no connection in a purebred cat with its country of origin. So for example, the Persian created in America today has no genetic connection with the Persian cats in Iran from where they're meant to have originated. Do the Norwegian Forest Cats created in America have any DNA in them from the Norwegian moggies of the 1800s? I doubt it. They are all rubbed out by artificial selection at the hands of breeders and on that basis the question in the title is also rubbed out.

I think we can say with some certainty that the only link between the Norwegian Forest Cat and the Maine Coon is that they both originate in moggy European cats which is not bad but you can't say that Maine Coons are descended from Norwegian Forest cats, in my opinion.

The two breeds do look a little similar but there are profound differences. I don't think we can use physical similarities as a reason to decide that one is descended from the other.

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