The genomic natural history of the aurochs
Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Rossi, Conor
Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S
Mullin, Victoria E
Scheu, Amelie
Erven, Jolijn A M
Verdugo, Marta Pereira
Daly, Kevin G
Ciucani, Marta Maria
Mattiangeli, Valeria
Teasdale, Matthew D
Diquelou, Deborah
Manin, Aurélie
Bangsgaard, Pernille
Collins, Matthew
Lord, Tom C
Zeibert, Viktor
Zorzin, Roberto
Vinter, Michael
Timmons, Zena
Kitchener, Andrew C
Street, Martin
Haruda, Ashleigh F
Tabbada, Kristina
Larson, Greger
Frantz, Laurent A F
Gehlen, Birgit
Alhaique, Francesca
Tagliacozzo, Antonio
Fornasiero, Mariagabriella
Pandolfi, Luca
Karastoyanova, Nadezhda
Sà¸rensen, Lasse
Kiryushin, Kirill
Ekstrà¶m, Jonas
Mostadius, Maria
Grandal-d’Anglade, Aurora
Vidal-Gorosquieta, Amalia
Benecke, Norbert
Kropp, Claus
Grushin, Sergei P
Gilbert, M Thomas P
Merts, Ilja
Merts, Viktor
Outram, Alan K
Rosengren, Erika
Kosintsev, Pavel
Sablin, Mikhail
Tishkin, Alexey A
Makarewicz, Cheryl A
Burger, Joachim
Bradley, Daniel G
Date published
November 7, 2024
Abstract
Now extinct, the aurochs (Bos primigenius) was a keystone species in prehistoric Eurasian and North African ecosystems, and the progenitor of cattle (Bos taurus), domesticates that have provided people with food and labour for millennia1. Here we analysed 38 ancient genomes and found 4 distinct population ancestries in the aurochs—European, Southwest Asian, North Asian and South Asian—each of which has dynamic trajectories that have responded to changes in climate and human influence. Similarly to Homo heidelbergensis, aurochsen first entered Europe around 650 thousand years ago2, but early populations left only trace ancestry, with both North Asian and European B. primigenius genomes coalescing during the most recent glaciation. North Asian and European populations then appear separated until mixing after the climate amelioration of the early Holocene. European aurochsen endured the more severe bottleneck during the Last Glacial Maximum, retreating to southern refugia before recolonizing from Iberia. Domestication involved the capture of a small number of individuals from the Southwest Asian aurochs population, followed by early and pervasive male-mediated admixture involving each ancestral strain of aurochs after domestic stocks dispersed beyond their cradle of origin.
Journal title
Nature
Volume
635
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
ISSN
0028-0836
eISSN
1476-4687
Date accepted
September 25, 2024
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright