I never knew that this was one of life's great conundrums, but apparently scientists have finally solved the greatest feline mystery of our time: Why is it, exactly, that some cats are orange?

In fact, two different research teams were working on this, and they’ve identified the precise genetic mutation that explains their orangeness, and it's a mutation not seen in other animals with similar coloration.

Orange-furred cats are often referred to as gingers. And according to Chris Kaelin, lead author of one of the new studies, the same basic mechanism underlying red hair in humans applies to orange cats, too: their pigment cells switch from making eumelanin pigment (brown/black) to making pheomelanin pigment (red/orange). But scientists have known for a while that the genetic cause of orangeness in cats is very different from the one in humans and other mammals.

However, the team’s discovery doesn’t explain everything about why orange cats are the way they are. These felines are commonly depicted as especially dim or mischievous, to the point that they’re said to possess a single brain cell that must be shared among all orange cats in the world. But the researchers found no evidence that their mutation causes any other changes, including those related to behavior or temperament.

So while you may have thought that Garfield's orange coloring was due to his love of lasagna, it turns out that it's just genetics after all! 

There's a lot more science to this story, so head on over to the article for the full details.