Extinct species of large cattle that inhabited Asia, Europe, and Northern Africa
Not to be confused with Bos taurus, European bison, or Oryx.
Aurochs
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene–Recent
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
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Mounted skeleton of an aurochs bull at the National Museum of Denmark
Conservation status
Extinct (1627) (IUCN 3.1)[1]
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
Bojanus, 1825[2]
Subspecies
List
†Bos primigenius primigenius Bojanus, 1825
†Bos primigenius namadicus Falconer, 1859
†Bos primigenius mauritanicus Thomas, 1881
†Bos primigenius thrinacius Siarabi, 2023
Former distribution of the aurochs
The aurochs (Bos primigenius) (/ˈɔːrɒks/ or /ˈaʊrɒks/) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to 180 cm (71 in) in bulls and 155 cm (61 in) in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene; it had massive elongated and broad horns that reached 80 cm (31 in) in length.
The aurochs was part of the Pleistocene megafauna. It probably evolved in Asia and migrated west and north during warm interglacial periods. The oldest known aurochs fossils found in India and North Africa date to the Middle Pleistocene and in Europe to the Holstein interglacial. As indicated by fossil remains in Northern Europe, it reached Denmark and southern Sweden during the Holocene. The aurochs declined during the late Holocene due to habitat loss and hunting, and became extinct around the 17th century.
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.
^Mallon, D.P. (2023). "Bos primigenius". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2023: e.T136721A237471616. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
^Cite error: The named reference Bojanus1827 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Holocene. The aurochs declined during the late Holocene due to habitat loss and hunting, and became extinct around the 17th century. The aurochs is depicted...
The Indian aurochs (Bos primigenius namadicus; Sindhi: انڊين جهنگلي ڏاند) is an extinct subspecies of aurochs that inhabited West Asia and the Indian subcontinent...
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cattle bear less resemblance to the aurochs than do many Iberian fighting cattle. Ideas for creating an aurochs-like animal from domestic cattle have...
be considered to resemble the aurochs closely. Rather they should be seen as a population of cattle in which a few aurochs characteristics may be found;...
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Night of the Aurochs is an unfinished novel by Dalton Trumbo (died 1976), published posthumously in 1979. Aurochs is an attempt by Trumbo to tell the tale...
(themselves bred in the 1920s and 1930s in an attempt to replicate the aurochs) with aurochs-like cattle, mostly from Southern Europe. Herds of these cross-bred...
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the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle. They were later reclassified as one species, Bos taurus, with the aurochs (B. t...
Though undomesticated aurochs are shown, via archaeological evidence and rock art, to have dwelled in Northeast Africa, aurochs are thought to have been...
best vague look-alikes of extinct wildtypes, as Heck cattle are of the aurochs. Purebred wild species evolved to a specific ecology can be threatened...
the goal of breeding back the extinct aurochs (Bos p. primigenius). Uruz is the old Germanic word for aurochs. The Uruz Project was initiated in 2013...
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of his projects was the reconstruction of extinct animals such as the aurochs through cross-breeding of various modern breeds which he thought had parts...
domestic animals. Zebu cattle were found to derive from the Indian form of aurochs and have first been domesticated between 7,000 and 6,000 YBP at Mehrgarh...
be close to the steppe bison (Bison priscus) lineage. Fossil bones of Aurochs (Bos primigenius) have also been found in Ichinoseki City. Since Hokkaido...
pattern. In 1858, the aurochs became the central theme of the most valuable stamp in Romanian postal history, the Cap de Bour. The aurochs head (dexter) and...
gray wolf and the Tatra chamois. The region was also home to the extinct aurochs, the last individual dying in Poland in 1627. Game animals such as red...
('wild bull', 'aurochs') and may refer to: Tauros Programme, an international effort to breed back domestic cattle to resemble the aurochs Tauros, a Pokémon...
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links it to an aurochs hunting trip of the voivode of the Voivodeship of Maramureș Dragoș and the latter's chase of a star-marked aurochs. Dragoș was accompanied...
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