Reduced brain size, compared with wild individuals, is argued to be a key characteristic among domestic mammal species, and is often thought to be a component of the “domestication syndrome”. However, brain size comparisons are often based on old, inaccessible literature and in some cases drew comparisons between domestic animals and wild species that are no longer thought to represent the true progenitor species of the domesticated variant in question. Here we set out to replicate results concerning cranial volumes in domestic cats that were published in the 1960s and 1970s and compared wildcats, domestic cats and their hybrids. In light of new research and ideas surrounding domestication and its effects on domestic animals a replication of these studies is highly relevant. Apart from replicating these studies we also present new data on palate length in Felis cat skulls.

Here we provide all data (both new and old digitzed data) upon which we based the analysis discussed in this manuscript.  We further provide a link to the code used in the analysis.