Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Like all domesticated animals, cattle are descendants of wild animals which have changed genetically over thousands of years.
New research published in Nature sheds light on the complex history of modern cows by analysing the DNA of their ancient ancestor the aurochs.
Aurochs (Bos primigenius) once roamed all over Asia, Europe and northern Africa.
They first emerged about 650,000 years ago in Europe about the same time that human ancestors Homo heidelbergensis first arrived on the continent.
Aurochs became extinct in the year 1627 CE after thousands of years of declining numbers due to overhunting and habitat loss. The last aurochs were found in Eastern Europe around Transylvania and Moldova.
There are 4 subspecies of aurochs: Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius), Indian aurochs (B. p. namadicus), North African aurochs (B. p. mauritanicus), and B. p. thrinacius – an insular dwarf subspecies which lived on the Greek island of Kythira and was first described last year.
A team of researchers examined the genomes taken from fossils of 38 aurochs.
The aurochs studied lived at different times over a period of 47,000 years. The team traced the evolutionary paths of European, Southwest Asian, North Asian and South Asian populations over that time.
The researchers found that each of these ancestries responded differently to climatic changes and the spread of humans.
For example, European aurochs faced severe population bottlenecks during the height of the last ice age about 20,000–26,000 years ago. They were confined to southern Europe before spreading again out of the Iberian Peninsula.
Modern cattle (Bos taurus) trace the largest portion of their genetics from the Southwest Asian aurochs. This suggests that early domestication efforts of the first modern cattle started with a narrow initial capture of Southwest Asian aurochs.
