The genomic natural history of the aurochs.

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), a domesticate that has provided people with food and labour for millennia1. Here we analysed 38 ancient genomes that revealed four distinct population ancestries within 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. Like Homo heidelbergensis, aurochsen first entered Europe ~650 kya2, but early populations left only trace ancestry with both North Asian and European Bos primigenius genomes coalescing during the most recent glaciation. North Asian and European populations then appear separated until mixing following the climate amelioration of the early Holocene. European aurochsen endured the more severe bottleneck during the Last Glacial Maximum, retreating to southern refugia before recolonising from Iberia. Domestication involved capture of a small number 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.