A mackerel tabby, with vertical stripes and white "socks". The characteristic "M" can be easily seen on its forehead.

A tabby is a cat with a distinctive coat that features stripes, dots, or swirling patterns. Tabbies are often mistakenly assumed to be a breed of cat. In fact, the tabby pattern is a naturally occurring feature that may be the original coloration of the domestic cat's distant ancestors. Tabby coloration is found in many breeds of cat, as well as among the general 'moggy' (mixed-breed or mongrel) population. When cats are allowed to breed randomly, the coloration of the population tends toward brown mackerel tabbies with green eyes, much like humans with brown hair and brown eyes, of which leading geneticists to believe that this is the common wild phenotype of the domestic cat. The tabby usually has an " M " mark on the forehead. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2592x1944, 2063 KB) Summary A tabby in white socks, Sir Beibei Licensing This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License v. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2592x1944, 2063 KB) Summary A tabby in white socks, Sir Beibei Licensing This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License v. ... Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... A cat breed is an infrasubspecific rank for the classification of domestic cats. ... For other meanings of Wild Cat and wildcat, see wildcat. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... Individuals in the mollusk species Donax variabilis show diverse coloration and patterning in their phenotypes. ...

The word comes from French tabis, which was earlier atabis, and in medieval Latin attabi. The initial origin of the word seems to be from the Attabiyah section of Baghdad where a type of striped silk was made that was later used to describe cats. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ...

Tabby patterns

Descriptions

Abyssinians have a ticked tabby pattern.

Portrait of a tabby she-cat with its typical three-colour pattern

Classic tabby, showing the bullseye pattern

A male tabby cat with the famous 'M' pattern on the forehead

There are three tabby patterns that have been shown to be genetically distinct: mackerel, classic and ticked. A fourth variation, spotted, is still undergoing debate as to its cause. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (825x1000, 190 KB) Beschreibung: Gatobelos Kamée, Abessinier wildfarben Quelle: fotografiert 2004 Fotograf: Martin Bahmann File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Talk:Abyssinian Abyssinian (cat) History... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (825x1000, 190 KB) Beschreibung: Gatobelos Kamée, Abessinier wildfarben Quelle: fotografiert 2004 Fotograf: Martin Bahmann File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Talk:Abyssinian Abyssinian (cat) History... The Abyssinian is a natural breed of domesticated cat believed to originate from one Egyptian female kitten called Zula that was taken from a port in Alexandria, Egypt, by a British soldier and brought to England where the breed was developed by Zula being bred with an English tabby, and... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 730 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1785 × 1466 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 730 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1785 × 1466 pixel, file size: 2. ... Download high resolution version (880x600, 137 KB)red kitten as seen in Agios Georgios, Crete, Greece Author: me, Paul Vlaar Date: 2002-09-05 Source: http://www. ... Download high resolution version (880x600, 137 KB)red kitten as seen in Agios Georgios, Crete, Greece Author: me, Paul Vlaar Date: 2002-09-05 Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 898 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Male tabby cat. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 898 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Male tabby cat. ...

Main rosset tabby patterns are: arrowhead - a pionted spot, arrowlike shape donut - a rounded spot with an incomplete surrounding rim pawprint - much like a donut spot but has some other rim spots

The mackerel tabby pattern has vertical, gently curving stripes on the side of the body. The stripes are thin and may be continuous or broken into bars and spots on the flanks and stomach. Often, an 'M' shape appears on the forehead. Mackerels also feature a 'peppered' nose, where black spots appear along the pink tip of the nose. Mackerels are also called 'fishbone tabbies'. Mackerel is the most common tabby pattern.

Classic (or 'blotched') tabbies have a similar 'M' pattern on the head, but the body markings are very different, having a whorled and swirled pattern with thicker stripes that make what are referred to as "butterfly" patterns on their shoulders and usually a bulls-eye or oyster pattern on the flank. The legs and tail are more heavily barred and the pattern is variable with respect to the width of the bands.

The ticked tabby pattern produces hairs with distinct bands of color on them, breaking up the tabby patterning into a salt-and-pepper appearance. However, ghost striping or "barring" can often be seen on the legs, face and belly. Edible salt is mostly sodium chloride (NaCl). ... Binomial name Piper nigrum L. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. ...

Spotted tabby pattern on an Ocicat.

The spotted tabby may not be a true pattern, but a modifier that breaks up the mackerel pattern so that the stripes appear as spots; the stripes of the classic pattern may be broken into larger spots. Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, Bengal, Egyptian Mau, and Ocicat breeds. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 796 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1712 pixel, file size: 790 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 796 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1712 pixel, file size: 790 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Ocicat is a new and still-rare breed of cat which has spots resembling a wild cat and the temperament of a domestic animal, named for its resemblance to the ocelot. ... The Australian Mist (formerly known as the Spotted Mist) is a breed of cat. ... The Bengal cat is a relatively new breed of domestic housecat (Felis silvestris catus) developed to have a gentle and friendly temperament, while exhibiting the markings (such as spots, rosettes, and a light/white belly), and body structure reminiscent of the wild Asian Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). ... Egyptian Maus are a medium-sized short-haired cat breed. ... The Ocicat is a new and still-rare breed of cat which has spots resembling a wild cat and the temperament of a domestic animal, named for its resemblance to the ocelot. ...

All of those patterns have been observed in random bred populations.

Many tabbies have a distinct 'M' marking on their forehead. There are several legends about where this came from. One relates that the Virgin Mary bestowed an M on a tabby's head after it helped keep the baby Jesus warm. In reality, the historical Mary would have spoken Aramaic and the first letter of her name is the Hebrew letter Mem (מ). Saint Mary and Saint Mary the Virgin both redirect here. ... Jacopo Bellinis Madonna and Child Blessing depicts the infant Jesus in the act of blessing the viewer The Child Jesus, or Christ Child is a religious symbol based on the activities of Jesus as an infant up to the age of twelve that recurs throughout history, starting from around...

The Tabby is a coat pattern and not a color. It can show up in combination with a variety of coat colors. A cat's coat can be described as red tabby or gray tabby. Black and blue are colors that usually show up without tabby markings, but with some cats, a faint tabby pattern can actually be noticed. White is the only color that never has any tabby markings.

Bi-colors can have the tabby pattern show up on the colored patches of their coat. Tortoiseshell cats sometimes display a pattern where the three-colored tortoiseshell pattern is mixed with tabby markings. These cats are known as "torbies". A tortoiseshell cat. ...

The most commonly identified breed of Tabby - the Classic Tabby - by the public tends to have a blotched pattern of dark browns, ochres, and black. With this breed uniform or nigh on uniform striping around the circumference of the tail defines feral origins in that particular cat's family tree.

The Silver Tabby as it is often known is a distinctive white/black tabby often in a Mackeral or Blotched pattern. The steel-white of the fur is what gives it its name.

Genetic explanations

Main article: Cat coat genetics

In cat genetics, pattern is unrelated to color, and so the tabby pattern may occur in any cat color, including tortoiseshell (tortoiseshell tabby cats are often called 'torbies'). White spotting of any level can also appear in combination with tabby patterns. This cats coat allows it to blend in well with its environment The genetics of cat coat coloration, pattern, length, and texture is a complex subject, and many different genes are involved. ...

The tabby patterns are due to 3 distinct gene loci and one modifier: For a non-technical introduction to the topic, see Introduction to Genetics. ...

The agouti gene, A/a, controls whether or not the tabby pattern is expressed. The dominant A reveals the underlying tabby pattern, while the recessive non-agouti or "hypermelanistic" allele, a, prevents it. Solid-color (black or blue) cats have the aa combination, hiding the tabby pattern, although sometimes a suggestion of the underlying pattern can be seen (called "ghost striping"). However, the O gene for orange color suppresses the aa genotype, so there is no such thing as a solid orange cat. Agouti refers to a number of species of rodents, as well as a number of genes affecting coat coloration in several different animals. ...

The primary tabby pattern gene, Mc/mc, sets the basic pattern of stripes that underlies the coat. Mc is the wild-type tabby gene and produces what is called a 'mackerel striped' tabby. 'Classic' tabbies are cats who also possess mc, a recessive mutant gene that produces the blotched pattern.

The ticked pattern is on a different gene locus than the mackerel and classic tabby patterns and is epistatic to the other patterns. A dominant mutation, T^a / t^a, masks any other tabby pattern, producing a non-patterned or 'agouti' tabby with virtually no stripes or bars. If the ticked pattern gene is present, any other tabby pattern is masked. Cats homozygous for the ticked allele (T^a / T^a) have less barring than cats heterozygous for the ticked allele. Epistasis takes place when the action of one gene is modified by one or more others that assort somewhat independently. ... Homozygote cells are diploid or polyploid and have the same alleles at a locus (position) on homologous chromosomes. ... For the hard rock band, see Allele (band). ...

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Tabby cats