He also noted that drawings of animals and animal mummies from Egypt, which were thousands of years old, showed no signs of change when compared with modern animals.

Recent discoveries by the American University in Cairo of animal mummies dachshund-like dogs from ancient Egyptian burial urns may lend credibility to this theory.

Such material includes papyruses, the Grassi Collection, animal mummies, and reproductions of the famous Book of the Dead.

There are so many animal mummies that archaeologists have long assumed that they must have been produced in a rush.

For example, the institute has discovered false animal mummies among a private collection and at the Peabody Museum.

The vast majority of Egyptian animal mummies were religious offerings.

The earliest signs of animal mummies are dated to the Badarian Predynastic Period (5500-4000BC) after the unification of upper and lower Egypt.

It is likely that animal mummies did not exist earlier on because mummification was less accessible primarily due to cost.

A simple visual analysis of the mummies suggests that some animal mummies were treated with the same complexity as those of humans.

Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats.