Aurochs
Aurochs Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
Mounted skeleton of an aurochs bull at the National Museum of Denmark | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Bovidae |
Subfamily: | Bovinae |
Genus: | Bos |
Species: | †B. primigenius
|
Binomial name | |
†Bos primigenius | |
Subspecies | |
Former distribution of the aurochs |
The aurochs (Bos primigenius) (
The aurochs was part of the
The aurochs is depicted in Paleolithic cave paintings, Neolithic petroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian reliefs and Bronze Age figurines. It symbolised power, sexual potency and prowess in religions of the ancient Near East. Its horns were used in votive offerings, as trophies and drinking horns.
Two aurochs domestication events occurred during the Neolithic Revolution. One gave rise to the domestic cattle (Bos taurus) in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East that was introduced to Europe via the Balkans and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Hybridisation between aurochs and early domestic cattle occurred during the early Holocene. Domestication of the Indian aurochs led to the zebu cattle (Bos indicus) that hybridised with early taurine cattle in the Near East about 4,000 years ago. Some modern cattle breeds exhibit features reminiscent of the aurochs, such as the dark colour and light eel stripe along the back of bulls, the lighter colour of cows, or an aurochs-like horn shape.
Etymology
Both "aur" and "ur" are Germanic or Celtic words meaning "wild ox".[3][4] In Old High German this word was compounded with ohso ('ox') to ūrohso, which became the early modern Aurochs.[5] The Latin word "urus" was used for wild ox from the Gallic Wars onwards.[4][6]
The use of the plural form aurochsen in English is a direct parallel of the German plural Ochsen and recreates the same distinction by analogy as English singular ox and plural oxen.[7] "Aurochs" is both the singular and the plural term used to refer to the animal.[8]
Taxonomy and evolution
The
The scientific name Bos primigenius was proposed for the aurochs by Bos primigenius mauritanicus was coined by Philippe Thomas in 1881 who described fossils found in deposits near Oued Seguen west of Constantine, Algeria.[12]In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature placed Bos primigenius on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology and thereby recognized the validity of this name for a wild species.[13][14]
Four aurochs subspecies are recognised:
- The Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius) was part of the
- The Indian aurochs (B. p. namadicus) lived on the Indian subcontinent.[16]
- The North African aurochs (B. p. mauritanicus) lived north of the Sahara.[5]
- B. p. thrinacius from the Greek island of Kythira[17]
Evolution
Bubalina (buffalo) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bos |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The cold
million years ago.An aurochs skull excavated in Tunisia's
The earliest aurochs fossils excavated in Europe date to the Holstein interglacial 230,000 years Before Present (BP).[25] A mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that hybridisation between the aurochs and the steppe bison (Bos priscus) occurred about 120,000 years ago; the European bison (Bos bonasus) contains up to 10% aurochs ancestry.[26]
Fossils of the Indian subspecies (Bos primigenius namadicus) were excavated in
Late Pleistocene aurochs fossils were found in
Fossils found at various locations in Denmark date to the Holocene 9,925–2,865 years BP.[31]
Description
According to a 16th century description by Sigismund von Herberstein, the aurochs was pitch-black with a grey streak along the back; his wood carving made in 1556 was based on a culled aurochs, which he had received in Mazovia.[33] In 1827, Charles Hamilton Smith published an image of an aurochs that was based on an oil painting that he had purchased from a merchant in Augsburg, which is thought to have been made in the early 16th century.[34] This painting is thought to have shown an aurochs,[5][35] although some authors suggested it may have shown a hybrid between an aurochs and domestic cattle, or a Polish steer.[36] Contemporary reconstructions of the aurochs are based on skeletons and the information derived from contemporaneous artistic depictions and historic descriptions of the animal.[5]
Coat colour
Remains of aurochs hair were not known until the early 1980s.
Body shape
The proportions and body shape of the aurochs were strikingly different from many modern cattle breeds. For example, the legs were considerably longer and more slender, resulting in a shoulder height that nearly equalled the trunk length. The skull, carrying the large horns, was substantially larger and more elongated than in most cattle breeds. As in other wild bovines, the body shape of the aurochs was athletic, and especially in bulls, showed a strongly expressed neck and shoulder musculature. Therefore, the fore hand was larger than the rear, similar to the wisent, but unlike many domesticated cattle. Even in carrying cows, the udder was small and hardly visible from the side; this feature is equal to that of other wild bovines.[5]
Size
The aurochs was one of the largest herbivores in Holocene Europe. The size of an aurochs appears to have varied by region, with larger specimens in northern Europe than farther south. Aurochs in Denmark and Germany ranged in height at the shoulders between 155–180 cm (61–71 in) in bulls and 135–155 cm (53–61 in) in cows, while aurochs bulls in Hungary reached 160 cm (63 in).[38]
The African aurochs was similar in size to the European aurochs in the Pleistocene, but declined in size during the transition to the Holocene; it may have also varied in size geographically.[39]
The body mass of aurochs appears to have shown some variability. Some individuals reached around 700 kg (1,540 lb), whereas those from the late Middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to 1,500 kg (3,310 lb).[5] The aurochs exhibited considerable sexual dimorphism in the size of males and females.[40]
Horns
The horns were massive, reaching 80 cm (31 in) in length and between 10 and 20 cm (3.9 and 7.9 in) in diameter.
Genetics
A well-preserved aurochs bone yielded sufficient
Distribution and habitat
The aurochs was widely distributed in North Africa, Mesopotamia, and throughout Europe to the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Caucasus and Western Siberia in the west and to the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in the north.[44]
Fossil horns attributed to the aurochs were found in
Landscapes in Europe probably consisted of dense forests throughout much of the last few thousand years. The aurochs is likely to have used riparian forests and wetlands along lakes.[40] Pollen of mostly small shrubs found in fossiliferous sediments with aurochs remains in China indicate that it preferred temperate grassy plains or grasslands bordering woodlands.[41] It may have also lived in open grasslands.[49] In the warm Atlantic period of the Holocene, it was restricted to remaining open country and forest margins, where competition with livestock and humans gradually increased leading to a successive decline of the aurochs.[32]
Extinction
The Indian aurochs (B. p. namadicus)
The African aurochs (B. p. mauritanicus) may have survived until at least to the
The Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius) was present in southern Sweden during the
Excessive hunting began and continued until it was nearly extinct. The gradual extinction of the aurochs in Central Europe was concurrent with the clearcutting of large forest tracts between the 9th and 12th centuries.[44]
By the 13th century, the aurochs existed only in small numbers in Eastern Europe, and hunting it became a privilege of nobles and later royals.[5] The population in Hungary declined since at least the 9th century and was extinct in the 13th century.[55][56]
Findings from
The last known aurochs herd lived in a marshy woodland in Poland's Jaktorów Forest. It decreased from around 50 individuals in the mid 16th century to four individuals by 1601. The last aurochs cow died in 1627 from natural causes.[61]
Behaviour and ecology
Aurochs formed small herds mainly in winter, but typically lived singly or in smaller groups during the summer.[44] If aurochs had social behaviour similar to their descendants, social status would have been gained through displays and fights, in which both cows and bulls engaged.[35] With its hypsodont jaw, the aurochs was probably a grazer, with a food selection very similar to domesticated cattle[5] feeding on grass, twigs and acorns.[44]
Cultural significance
In Asia
The aurochs is denoted in the
In Africa
Petroglyphs depicting aurochs found in
In Europe
The aurochs is widely represented in Paleolithic cave paintings in the Chauvet and Lascaux caves in southern France dating to 36,000 and 21,000 years BP, respectively.[75] Two Paleolithic
Palaeolithic engravings showing aurochs were also found in the Grotta del Genovese on the Italian island of Levanzo.[77] Upper Paleolithic rock engravings and paintings depicting the aurochs were also found in caves on the Iberian Peninsula dating from the Gravettian to the Magdalenian cultures.[78][79][80] Aurochs bones with chop and cut marks were found at various Mesolithic hunting and butchering sites in France, Luxemburg, Germany, the Netherlands, England and Denmark.[81] Aurochs bones were also found in Mesolithic settlements by the Narva and Emajõgi rivers in Estonia.[82] Aurochs and human bones were uncovered from pits and burnt mounds at several Neolithic sites in England.[83] A cup found in the Greek site ofIn the Nibelungenlied, Sigurd kills four aurochs.[89] During the Middle Ages, aurochs horns were used as drinking horns including the horn of the last bull; many aurochs horn sheaths are preserved today.[90] The aurochs drinking horn at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge was engraved with the college's coat of arms in the 17th century.[91] An aurochs head with a star between its horns and
Aurochs were hunted with arrows, nets and hunting dogs, and its hair on the forehead was cut from the living animal; belts were made out of this hair and believed to increase the fertility of women. When the aurochs was slaughtered, the os cordis was extracted from the heart; this bone contributed to the mystique and magical powers that were attributed to it.[5] In eastern Europe, the aurochs has left traces in expressions like "behaving like an aurochs" for a drunken person behaving badly, and "a bloke like an aurochs" for big and strong people.[40]
Domestication
The earliest known domestication of the aurochs dates to the Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent, where cattle hunted and kept by Neolithic farmers gradually decreased in size between 9800 and 7500 BC. Aurochs bones found at Mureybet and Göbekli Tepe are larger in size than cattle bones from later Neolithic settlements in northern Syria like Dja'de el-Mughara and Tell Halula.[93] In Late Neolithic sites of northern Iraq and western Iran dating to the sixth millennium BC, cattle remains are also smaller but more frequent, indicating that domesticated cattle were imported during the Halaf culture from the central Fertile Crescent region.[94] Results of genetic research indicate that the modern
The Indian aurochs is thought to have been domesticated 10–8,000 years ago.[100] Aurochs fossils found at the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Pakistan are dated to around 8,000 years BP and represent some of the earliest evidence for its domestication on the Indian subcontinent.[52] Female Indian aurochs contributed to the gene pool of zebu (Bos indicus) between 5,500 and 4,000 years BP during the expansion of pastoralism in northern India. The zebu initially spread eastwards to Southeast Asia.[50] Hybridisation between zebu and early taurine cattle occurred in the Near East after 4,000 years BP coinciding with the drought period during the 4.2-kiloyear event.[101] The zebu was introduced to East Africa about 3,500–2,500 years ago,[95] and reached Mongolia in the 13th and 14th centuries.[102]
A third domestication event thought to have occurred in Egypt's Western Desert is not supported by results of an analysis of genetic admixture, introgression and migration patterns of 3,196 domestic cattle representing 180 populations.[95]
Breeding of aurochs-like cattle
In the early 1920s, Heinz Heck initiated a selective breeding program in Hellabrunn Zoo attempting to breed back the aurochs using several cattle breeds; the result is called Heck cattle.[103] Herds of these cattle were released to Oostvaardersplassen, a polder in the Netherlands in the 1980s as aurochs surrogates for naturalistic grazing with the aim to restore prehistorical landscapes.[104] Large numbers of them died of starvation during the cold winters of 2005 and 2010, and the project of no interference ended in 2018.[105]
Starting in 1996, Heck cattle were crossed with southern European cattle breeds such as
See also
References
- ^ Mallon, D.P. (2023). "Bos primigenius". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2023: e.T136721A237471616. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
- ^ a b Bojanus, L.H. (1827). "De Uro nostrate eiusque sceleto commentation". Nova Acta Physico-medica Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae Naturae Curiosum (in Latin). 13 (5): 53–478.
- ISBN 978-0-517-41425-5.
- ^ a b Lewis, C. T. & Short, C. (1879). "ūrus". A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 1936.
- ^ ISBN 954-642-235-5.
- ^ Harper & Brothers.
- ISBN 0-521-53033-4.
- ISBN 978-3-319-69578-5.
- ^ Linnaeus, C. (1758). "Bos Taurus". Systema naturae per regna tria naturae: secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (Tenth reformed ed.). Holmiae: Laurentii Salvii. p. 71.
- .
- ^ Falconer, H. (1859). "Notice of the various species of bovine animals". The Zoologist. 17: 6414–6429.
- ^ Thomas, P. (1881). "Recherches sur les bovidés fossiles de l'Algérie". Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France. 6 (Avril): 92–136.
- ^ International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (2003). "Opinion 2027 (Case 3010). Usage of 17 specific names based on wild species which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic animals (Lepidoptera, Osteichthyes, Mammalia)". The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 60 (1): 81–84.
- .
- ^ PMID 22422765.
- PMID 25032348.
- S2CID 263817925.
- PMID 23927069.
- ^ PMID 30374461.
- PMID 22415349.
- PMID 23927069.
- PMID 34712923.
- .
- ^ Thomas, H. (1977). Géologie et paléontologie du gisement acheuléen de l'erg Tihodaïne, Ahaggar Sahara Algérien. Paris: Memoires du centre de recherches anthlropologiques, prehistoriques et ethnographiques.
- ^ Kurten, B. (1968). "Order Artiodactyla". Pleistocene Mammals of Europe. London: Aldine Publishing Company. pp. 171–190.
- PMID 27754477.
- .
- S2CID 236373843.
- S2CID 129496788.
- hdl:10447/61514. Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ^ PMID 22188739.
- ^ a b Schulz, E. & Kaiser, T.M. (2007). "Feeding strategy of the Urus Bos primigenius Bojanus, 1827 from the Holocene of Denmark". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 259: 155–164.
- ^ Senglaub, K. (2002). "Sigmund von Herberstein (1486–1566) und die historischen Konfusionen um Ur und Wisent" (PDF). Säugetierkundliche Informationen. 5 (26): 253–266. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ^ Lydekker, R. (1912). "The wild Ox and its extermination". The ox and its kindred. London: Methuen &Co. Ltd. pp. 37–67.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-00-026764-2.
- .
- .
- ^ a b Kysely, R. (2008). "Aurochs and potential crossbreeding with domestic cattle in Central Europe in the Eneolithic period. A metric analysis of bones from the archaeological site of Kutná Hora-Denemark (Czech Republic)". Anthropozoologica. 43 (2): 7–37.
- ^ .
- ^ CiteSeerX 10.1.1.534.6285.
- ^ a b c Zong, G. (1984). "A record of Bos primigenius from the Quaternary of the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Region" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 22 (3). Translated by Dehut, J.: 239–245. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007.
- PMID 20174668.
- PMID 28197171.
- ^ a b c d e Heptner, V.G.; Nasimovich, A.A. & Bannikov, A.G. (1988) [1961]. "Aurochs, primitive cattle". Mlekopitajuščie Sovetskogo Soiuza. Moskva: Vysšaia Škola [Mammals of the Soviet Union]. Vol. Volume I. Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation. pp. 539–549.
- (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ISBN 978-89-6811-369-7.
- ^ Kurosawa Y. "モノが語る牛と人間の文化 - ② 岩手の牛たち" (PDF). LIAJ (109). Oshu city Cattle Museum: 29–31. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ Hasegawa, Y.; Okumura, Y. & Tatsukawa, H. (2009). "First record of Late Pleistocene Bison from the fissure deposits of the Kuzuu Limestone, Yamasuge, Sano-shi, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan" (PDF). Bulletin of Gunma Museum of Natural History (13): 47–52. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ Beutler, A. (1996). "Die Großtierfauna Europas und ihr Einfluss auf Vegetation und Landschaft". Natur und Kulturlandschaft. 1: 51–106.
- ^ PMID 19770222.
- ISBN 978-81-7824-140-1.
- ^ S2CID 234265221.
- ISBN 978-94-024-1105-8.
- .
- .
- S2CID 161722401.
- S2CID 131580290.
- (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ^ Boev, Z. (2016). "Subfossil vertebrate fauna from Forum Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria), 16–18th Century AD". Acta Zoologica Bulgarica. 68 (3): 415–424.
- S2CID 246761121.
- doi:10.1017/S1014233900004582. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 January 2013.
- JSTOR 43610690.
- S2CID 234236699.
- PMID 20805510.
- ^ Farajova, M. (2011). "Gobustan: Rock Art Cultural Landscape" (PDF). Adoranten. 11: 41–66. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- S2CID 162522860.
- ^ Makarem, M. (2012). "Et si Europe était sidonienne?". L'Orient Le Jour. Beirut. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- ^ Mackay, E.J.H. (1935). "Steatite pectoral, once mounted in metal and filled with inlay". The Indus civilization. London: Lovat Dickson & Thompson Ltd. p. Plate J.
- ISBN 978-90-04-16819-0.
- ISBN 9781785707247.
- ISBN 9783868350876.
- ISBN 9780231537698.
- S2CID 130471822.
- (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- .
- .
- S2CID 166147585.
- ISBN 9783980583961.
- ISBN 9781407303048. Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- .
- .
- ^ Kriiska, A. (2000). "Settlements of coastal Estonia and maritime hunter-gatherer economy". Lietuvos Archeologija. 19: 153–166.
- S2CID 161079743.
- ^ S2CID 86035650.
- .
- JSTOR 504710.
- ISBN 9780405084614.
- ^ Knight, C. (1847). "European bison, or Aurochs". The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge. Vol. (Volume III). London: Little, Brown and Co. pp. 367–371.
- ISBN 9783618661207.
- S2CID 133684586.
- ^ Oman, C. (1972). "Cambridge and Cornelimünster". Aachener Kunstblätter. 43: 305–307.
- PMID 33114524.
- ISBN 1-84217-121-6.
- (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ^ PMID 30622640.
- PMID 16243693.
- PMID 16690747.
- PMID 26498365.
- PMID 35505892.
- PMID 8643540.
- (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- PMID 15223036.
- .
- ^ S2CID 131547744.
- doi:10.1086/703338.
- CiteSeerX 10.1.1.403.8349.
- doi:10.5334/oq.25.
External links
- Media related to Bos primigenius at Wikimedia Commons
- Data related to Aurochs at Wikispecies