Jump to content

Aurochs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Moscoh (talk | contribs) at 15:26, 2 January 2013 (Fix typo). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Not to be confused with Wisent.

Aurochs
Temporal range: Late Pliocene to Holocene
Mounted skeleton of a putative female in National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen

Extinct (1627)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Artiodactyla
Family:
Bovidae
Subfamily:
Bovinae
Genus:
Bos
Species:
†B. primigenius
Binomial name
†Bos primigenius
(Bojanus, 1827)
Subspecies

B. p. primigenius
  (Bojanus, 1827)
B. p. namadicus
  (Falconer, 1859)
B. p. africanus
  (Thomas, 1881)

Map, after Cis Van Vuure's Retracing the Aurochs: History, Morphology & Ecology of an Extinct Wild Ox
Synonyms

Bos mauretanicus Thomas, 1881
Bos namadicus Falconer, 1859
Bosurus minutus v. D. Malsburg, 1911

The aurochs (/ˈɔːrɒks/ or /ˈaʊrɒks/; also urus, ure, (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of domestic cattle, is an extinct type of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa; they survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs, a female, died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627.

During the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred during the early Holocene, there were at least two aurochs domestication events: one related to the Indian subspecies, leading to zebu cattle; the other one related to the Eurasian subspecies, leading to taurine cattle. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated, namely the wild water buffalo, gaur, and banteng. In modern cattle, numerous breeds share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a dark colour in the bulls, with a light eel stripe along the back with the cows being lighter, or a typical aurochs-like horn shape.

Taxonomy and etymology

Illustration from Sigismund von Herberstein's book published in 1556 captioned : "I am 'urus', tur in Polish, aurox in German (dunces call me bison) [lit. (the) ignorant (ones) had given me the name (of) Bison"; Latin original: Urus sum, polonis Tur, germanis Aurox: ignari Bisontis nomen dederant

The aurochs was variously classified as Bos primigenius, Bos taurus, or, in old sources, Bos urus. However, in 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature "conserved the usage of 17 specific names based on wild species, which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic forms",[2] confirming Bos primigenius for the Aurochs. Taxonomists who consider domesticated cattle a subspecies of the wild Aurochs should use B. primigenius taurus; those who consider domesticated cattle to be a separate species may use the name B. taurus, which the Commission has kept available for that purpose.

The words "aurochs", "urus", and "wisent" have all been used synonymously in English.[3][4] However, the extinct aurochs/urus is a completely separate species from the still-extant wisent. The two were often confused, and some 16th-century illustrations of aurochs and wisents have hybrid features.[5] The word urus (/ˈjʊərəs/) comes to English from Latin, but may have come to Latin from Germanic origins.[6] It declines in English as urus (singular), uruses (plural).[6][7] In the German language, Ur developed into Auer following a diphthongization in the language during the 13th century. Later, "-ochs" was added, which is meant to refer to a wild bovine. Thus the German name of the animal turned to Auerochs/Auerochse.[8]

The word "aurochs" comes to English from German, where its normal spelling and declension today is Auerochs/Auerochse (singular), Auerochsen (genitive), Auerochsen (plural). The declension in English varies, being either "auroch" (singular), "aurochs" (plural)[9][10] or "aurochs" (singular), "aurochses" (plural).[10] The declension "auroch" (singular), "aurochs" (plural), acknowledged by MWU,[10] is a back-formation, analogous to "pea"-from-"pease", derived from a misinterpretation of the singular form ending in the /s/ sound (being cognate to "ox/Ochs(e)"). The use in English of the plural form "aurochsen" is not acknowledged by AHD4 or MWU, but is mentioned in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.[11] It is directly parallel to the German plural and analogous (and cognate) to English "ox" (singular), "oxen" (plural).

Evolution

Aurochs bull at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen from 7400 BC

During the Pliocene, the colder climate caused an extension of open grassland, which led to the evolution of large grazers, such as wild bovines.[citation needed] Bos acutifrons is an extinct species of cattle sometimes claimed to be the ancestor of aurochs, but it was a species with very long, outward-facing horns.

The oldest aurochs remains have been dated to about 2 million years ago, in India. The Indian subspecies was the first to appear..[citation needed] During the Pleistocene, the species migrated west into the Middle East (western Asia) as well as to the east. They reached Europe about 270,000 years ago.[8] The South Asian domestic cattle, or zebu, descended from Indian aurochs at the edge of the Thar Desert; the zebu is resistant to drought. Domestic yak, gayal and Javan cattle do not descend from aurochs.

The first complete mitochondrial genome (16,338 base pairs) DNA sequence analysis of Bos primigenius from an archaeologically verified and exceptionally well preserved aurochs bone sample was published in 2010.[12]

Three wild subspecies of aurochs are recognized. Only the Eurasian subspecies survived until recent times.

  • The Indian Aurochs (Bos primigenius namadicus) once inhabited India. It was the first subspecies of the aurochs to appear, at 2 million years ago, and from about 9,000 years ago (BP), it was domesticated as the zebu cattle.[13] Fossil remains indicate there were wild Indian aurochs besides domesticated zebu cattle in Gujarat and the Ganges area until about 4,000-5,000 years ago. Remains from wild aurochs, 4,400 years old, are clearly identified from Karnataka in south India.[14]
  • The Eurasian Aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius) once ranged across the steppes and taigas of Europe, Siberia, and Central Asia. It is noted as part of the Pleistocene megafauna, and declined in numbers along with other megafauna species by the end of Pleistocene. The Eurasian aurochs were domesticated into modern taurine cattle breeds around the 6th millennium BC in the Middle East, and possibly also at about the same time in the Far East. Aurochs were still widespread in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, when they were widely popular as a battle beast in Roman arenas. Excessive hunting began and continued until the species was nearly extinct. By the 13th century, aurochs existed only in small numbers in Eastern Europe, and the hunting of aurochs became a privilege of nobles, and later royal households. The aurochs were not saved from extinction, and the last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland from natural causes. Aurochs were found to have lived on the island of Sicily, having migrated via a land bridge from Italy. After the disappearance of the land bridge, Sicilian aurochs evolved to be 20% smaller than their mainland relatives.
  • The North African Aurochs (Bos primigenius africanus) once lived in the woodland and shrubland of North Africa.[1] It descended from Aurochs populations migrating from the Middle East. The North African aurochs was morphologically very similar to the Eurasian subspecies, so that this taxon may exist only in a biogeographic sense.[8] However there is evidence that it was genetically distinct from the Eurasian subspecies.[15] Depictions indicate that North African aurochs may have had a light saddle marking on its back.[16] This subspecies may have been extinct prior to the Middle Ages.[8]

Description

Holocene aurochs bull skull in Berlin

The appearance of the aurochs has been reconstructed from skeletal material, historical descriptions and contemporaneous depictions, such as cave paintings, engravings or Sigismund von Herberstein’s illustration. The work by Charles Hamilton Smith is a copy of a painting owned by a merchant in Augsburg, which may date to the 16th century. Scholars have proposed that Smith's illustration was based on a cattle/aurochs hybrid, or an aurochs-like breed.[17] The aurochs was depicted in prehistoric cave paintings and described in Julius Caesar's The Gallic War.[full citation needed]

The aurochs was one of the largest herbivores in postglacial Europe, comparable to the wisent, the European bison. The size of an aurochs appears to have varied by region: in Europe, northern populations were bigger on average than those from the south. For example, during the Holocene, aurochs from Denmark and Germany had an average height at the shoulders of 155–180 cm (61–71 in) in bulls and 135–155 cm (53–61 in) in cows, while aurochs populations in Hungary had bulls reaching 155–160 cm (61–63 in).[18] The body mass of aurochs appeared to have showed some variability. Some individuals were comparable in weight to the wisent and the banteng, reaching around 700 kg (1,500 lb), whereas those from the late-middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to 1,500 kg (3,300 lb), as much as the largest gaur (the largest extant bovid).[8][19] The sexual dimorphism between bull and cow was strongly expressed, with the cows being significantly shorter than bulls on average.

Restoration of the aurochs based on a bull skeleton from Lund and a cow skeleton from Copenhagen

Because of the massive horns, the frontal bones of aurochs were elongated and broad. The horns of the aurochs were characteristic in size, curvature and orientation. They were curved in three directions: upwards and outwards at the base, then swinging forwards and inwards, then inwards and upwards. Aurochs horns could reach 80 cm (31 in) in length and between 10 and 20 cm (3.9 and 7.9 in) in diameter.[16] The horns of bulls were larger, with the curvature more strongly expressed than in cows. The horns grew from the skull at a 60° angle to the muzzle, facing forwards.[citation needed]

The body shape of the aurochs was strikingly different from many modern cattle breeds.[citation needed] 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. Even in carrying cows, the udder was small and hardly visible from the side; this feature is equal to that of other wild bovines.[8]

Aurochs in a cave painting in Lascaux, France

The coat colour of the aurochs can be reconstructed by using historical and contemporary depictions. In his letter to Conrad Gesner (1602), Anton Schneeberger describes the aurochs, a description that agrees with cave paintings in Lascaux and Chauvet. Calves were born a chestnut colour. Young bulls changed their coat colour at a few months' old to a very deep brown or black, with a white eel stripe running down the spine. Cows retained the reddish-brown colour. Both sexes had a light-coloured muzzle.[8] Some North African engravings show aurochs with a light-colored "saddle" on the back,[16] but otherwise there is no evidence of variation in coat colour throughout its range. A passage from Mucante (1596), describing the “wild ox” as gray, but is ambiguous and may refer to the wisent. Egyptian grave paintings show cattle with a reddish-brown coat colour in both sexes, with a light saddle, but the horn shape of these suggest that they may depict domestic cattle.[8] Remains of aurochs hair were not known until the early 1980s.[20]

Some primitive cattle breeds display similar coat colours to the aurochs, including the black colour in bulls with a light eel stripe, a pale mouth, and similar sexual dimorphism in colour. A feature often attributed to the aurochs is blond forehead hairs.[citation needed] Historical descriptions tell that the aurochs had long and curly forehead hair, but none mentions a certain colour for it. Cis van Vuure (2005) says that, although the color is present in a variety of primitive cattle breeds, it is probably a discolouration that appeared after domestication. The gene responsible for this feature has not yet been identified.[8] Zebu breeds show lightly coloured inner sides of the legs and belly, caused by the so-called Zebu-tipping gene. It has not been tested if this gene is present in remains of the wild form of the zebu, the Indian aurochs.[8]

Habitat, ecology and behaviour

Floodplain forests like this one in Germany were the aurochs' last refuge during its final centuries of existence.

There is no consensus concerning the habitat of the aurochs. While some authors think that the habitat selection of the aurochs was comparable to the African Forest Buffalo, others describe the species as inhabiting open grassland and helping maintain open areas by grazing, together with other large herbivores.[21][22] With its hypsodont jaw, the aurochs was probably a grazer and had a food selection very similar to domestic cattle.[8][clarification needed] It was not a browser like many deer species, nor a semi-intermediary feeder[clarification needed] like the wisent. Comparisons of the isotope levels of Mesolithic aurochs and domestic cattle bones showed that aurochs probably inhabited wetter areas than domestic cattle.[23] Schneeberger describes that, during winter, the aurochs ate twigs and acorns in addition to grasses.

After the beginning of the Common Era, the habitat of aurochs became more fragmented because of the steadily growing human population. During the last centuries of its existence, the aurochs was limited to remote regions, such as floodplain forests or marshes, where there were no competing domestic herbivores and less hunting pressure.

Like many bovids, aurochs formed herds for at least one part of the year. These probably did not number much more than thirty, and were probably composed of cows with their calves and some young bulls. Older bulls probably wandered solely or in small bull herds outside the mating season.[citation needed] If aurochs had simlar social behaviour as their descendents, social status was gained through displays and fights, in which cows engaged as well as bulls.[16] As in other wild cattle, ungulates that form unisexual herds, there was considerable sexual dimorphism. Ungulates that form herds containing animals of both sexes, such as horses, have more weakly developed sexual dimorphism.[24]

A painting by Heinrich Harder showing an aurochs fighting off a Eurasian Wolf pack

During the mating season, which probably took place during the late summer or early autumn,[8] the bulls had severe fights, and evidence from the forest of Jaktorów, these could lead to death. In autumn, aurochs fed up for the winter and got fatter and shinier than during the rest of the year, according to Schneeberger.[full citation needed] Calves were born in spring. The mother stayed at the calf's side until it was strong enough to join and keep up with the herd on the feeding grounds.[citation needed]

Calves were vulnerable to wolves, while healthy adult aurochs probably did not have to fear these predators.[citation needed] In prehistoric Europe, North Africa and Asia, big cats, like lions and tigers, and hyenas were additional predators that probably preyed on aurochs.[citation needed]

Historical descriptions, like Caesar’s De Bello Gallico or Schneeberger, tell that aurochs were swift and fast, and could be very aggressive. According to Schneeberger, aurochs were not concerned when a man approached. But, teased or hunted, an aurochs could get very aggressive and dangerous, and throw the teasing person into the air, as he described in a 1602 letter to Gesner.[8]

Relationship with humans

Domestication

This presumably female specimen is from around 7500 BC and is one of two very well-preserved aurochs skeletons found in Denmark. The Vig-aurochs can be seen at The National Museum of Denmark. The circles indicate where the animal was wounded by arrows.

The aurochs, which ranged throughout much of Eurasia and Northern Africa during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, is widely accepted as the wild ancestor of modern cattle. Archaeological evidence shows that domestication occurred independently in the Near East and the Indian subcontinent between 10,000–8,000 years ago, giving rise to the two major domestic taxa observed today: humpless Bos taurus (taurine) and humped Bos indicus (zebu), respectively. This is confirmed by genetic analyses of matrilineal mitochondrial DNA sequences, which reveal a marked differentiation between modern Bos taurus and Bos indicus haplotypes, demonstrating their derivation from two geographically and genetically divergent wild populations.[12]

Domestication of the aurochs began in the southern Caucasus and northern Mesopotamia from about the 6th millennium BC. Genetic evidence suggests that aurochs were independently domesticated in India and possibly also in northern Africa.[25] Domesticated cattle and aurochs are so different in size that they have been regarded as separate species; however, large ancient cattle and aurochs "are difficult to classify because morphological traits have overlapping distributions in cattle and aurochs and diagnostic features are identified only in horn and some cranial element."[8][26]

A DNA study suggests that all domesticated cattle originated from about 80 wild aurochs. Those animals lived in Iran 10,500 years ago.[27]

Charles Hamilton Smith's copy of a painting possibly dating back to the 16th century

Comparison of aurochs bones with those of modern cattle has provided many insights about the aurochs. Remains of the beast, from specimens believed to have weighed more than a ton, have been found in Mesolithic sites around Goldcliff, Wales.[28] Though aurochs became extinct in Britain during the Bronze age, analysis of bones from aurochs that lived at about the same time as domesticated cattle showed no genetic contribution to modern breeds. As a result of this study, modern European cattle were thought to have descended directly from the Near East domestication. Another study found distinct similarities between modern breeds and Italian aurochs specimens, which suggested that the previously tested British aurochs were not a good model of the diversity of aurochs genetics. It also suggests possible North African and European aurochs contributions to domestic breeds.[26][29][30] Further genetic tests have shown that domestic cattle in Europe are of Near Eastern origin. This indicates that the European aurochs was not domesticated, nor did it interbreed with the imported Near Eastern cattle.[31][32]

Indian cattle (zebu), although domesticated eight to ten thousand years ago, are related to aurochs that diverged from the Near Eastern ones some 200,000 years ago. African cattle are thought to have descended from aurochs more closely related to the Near Eastern ones. The Near East and African aurochs groups are thought to have split some 25,000 years ago, probably 15,000 years before domestication. The "Turano-Mongolian" type of cattle now found in Northern China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan may represent a fourth domestication event (and a third event among Bos taurus–type aurochs). This group may have diverged from the Near East group some 35,000 years ago. Whether these separate genetic populations would have equated to separate subspecies is unclear.[citation needed]

The maximum range of the aurochs was from Europe (excluding Ireland and northern Scandinavia), to northern Africa, the Middle East, India and Central Asia.[33][34] Until at least 3,000 years ago, the aurochs was also found in Eastern China, where it is recorded at the Dingjiabao Reservoir in Yangyuan County. Most remains in China are known from the area east of 105° E, but the species has also been reported from the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau, close to the Heihe River.[35]

Extinction

The ornamented horn of the last aurochs bull

By the 13th century A.D., the aurochs' range was restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania and East Prussia. The right to hunt large animals on any land was restricted first to nobles and then, gradually, to only the royal households. As the population of aurochs declined, hunting ceased, and the royal court used gamekeepers to provide open fields for grazing for the aurochs. The gamekeepers were exempted from local taxes in exchange for their service. Poaching aurochs was punishable by death. According to the royal survey in 1564, the gamekeepers knew of 38 animals. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland, from natural causes. The causes of extinction were hunting, a narrowing of habitat due to the development of farming, climatic changes, and diseases transmitted by domestic cattle.[36]

Cattle resembling the aurochs

"Primitive" breeds

Because some cattle breeds have been changed more than other breeds, certain breeds bear a greater resemblance to the aurochs. These breeds are not very productive from the economical point of view, as they do not give as much milk or meat as others. Most of the "primitive" phenotypes are facing extinction, because farmers give them up for economic reasons or crossbreed them with more productive dairy and meat cattle. Very hardy and robust, the primitive breeds are sometimes used in nature conservation programs, where they can fill the place of their wild ancestor in the ecology. Some have been integrated into the TaurOs Project, whose goal is to breed a cattle type phenotypically, genotypically and ecologically as close to the aurochs as possible.[37] Primitive breeds include, for example: Caldela, Heck cattle, Limia Cattle, Maremmana primitivo, Maronesa, Pajuna Cattle, Rhodopian Shorthorn,[38] Sayaguesa Cattle, Spanish Fighting Bull and Tudanca Cattle.

Breeding of aurochs-like cattle

Heck cattle: an attempt from the 1920s to breed a look-alike from modern cattle

In the 1920s, two German zoo directors (in Berlin and Munich), the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck, began a selective breeding program to breed back the aurochs into existence from the descendant domestic cattle. Their plan was based on the concept that a species is not extinct as long as all its genes are still present in a living population.[39] The result is the breed called Heck cattle. It resembles what is known about the appearance of the aurochs in colour and, in some cases, also horn shape.[8]

Main breeds used in TaurOs Project. Upper row from left to right: Limia, Maremmana primitivo, Maronesa. Lower row: Podolica, Sayaguesa, Pajuna. Down below, the phenotypic and ecologic breeding target, the Aurochs.

Scientists of the Polish Foundation for Recreating the Aurochs (PFOT) in Poland hope to use DNA from bones in museums to recreate the aurochs. They plan to return this animal to the forests of Poland. The project has gained the support of the Polish Ministry of the Environment. They plan research on ancient preserved DNA. Other research projects [which?] have extracted "ancient" DNA over the past twenty years and their results have been published in such periodicals as Nature and PNAS.[full citation needed] Polish scientists believe that modern genetics and biotechnology make it possible to recreate an animal almost identical to the aurochs. They say this research will lead to examining the causes of the extinction of the aurochs, and help prevent a similar occurrence with domestic cattle.[40][citation needed] In a similar program, TaurOs Project[41] is trying to DNA-sequence breeds of primitive cattle to find gene sequences that match those found in "ancient DNA" from aurochs samples. The modern cattle would be selectively bred to try to produce the aurochs-type genes in a single animal.[42] TaurOs project selected a number of primitive breeds mainly from Iberia and Italy, such as Sayaguesa Cattle, Maremmana primitivo, Pajuna Cattle, Limia Cattle, Maronesa, Tudanca Cattle and others, which already bear considerable resemblance to the aurochs in certain features. Numerous crossbreed calves have been born already.[43]

In culture

See also: Bull (mythology)
Replica of Chauvet cave art depicting aurochs, Woolly rhino, and wild horses
Cro-Magnon Graffito of Bos Primigenius in Grotta del Romito, Papasidero, Italy

The aurochs was one of the most important hunting game animals and attained cultural significance early on. In the oldest cultural references, aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European and Mesopotamian cave paintings, such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. When the animals were drawn in profile, only one horn was visible, which some researchers say gave rise to the legend or Greek mythos of the unicorn[citation needed], though the elasmotherium, a now extinct Eurasian giant rhinoceros, is a more likely derivation.[44] Early carvings of the aurochs have also been found. The impressive and dangerous aurochs survived into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East, and was worshipped throughout that area as a sacred animal, the Lunar Bull, associated with the Great Goddess[disambiguation needed][which?] and later with Mithras. In 2012, an archaeological mission of the British Museum, led by Lebanese archaeologist Claude Doumet Serhal, discovered at the site of the old American school in Sidon, Lebanon, the remains of wild animal bones, including those of an aurochs, dating from the late fourth-early third millennium.[45] A 1999 archaeological dig in Peterborough, England, uncovered the skull of an aurochs. The front part of the skull had been removed but the horns remained attached. The supposition is that the killing of the aurochs in this instance was a sacrificial act.

Also during antiquity, the aurochs was regarded as an animal of cultural value. Aurochs are depicted on the Ishtar Gate. Aurochs horns were often used by Romans as hunting horns. Aurochs were among those wild animals caught for fights (venationes) in arenas. Julius Caesar wrote about aurochs in Gallic War Chapter 6.28:

"...those animals which are called uri. These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this sort of hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments."

[full citation needed]

16th-century illustration by Teodoro Ghisi, believed to show an aurochs. However, the horns and muzzle differ from those of an aurochs

The ancient name of the Estonian town of Rakvere, Tarwanpe or Tarvanpea, probably derives from Auroch's head (Tarva pea) in ancient Estonian. The Hebrew Bible contains numerous references to the untameable strength of re'em,[46] translated in the King James Version as "unicorn" but recognized from the last century as Aurochs.[47][48]

When the aurochs became rarer, hunting it became a privilege of the nobility and a sign of a high social status. In the Nibelungenlied, the killing of aurochs by Siegfried is described: “Darnach schlug er schiere einen Wisent und einen Elch, starker Ure viere und einen grimmen Schelch”,[16] meaning "After that, he defeated one wisent and one elk, four aurochs and one Schelch" - the background of the "Schelch" is dubious. Aurochs horns were commonly used as drinking horns by the nobility, which led to the fact that many aurochs horn sheaths are preserved today (albeit often discoloured). Furthermore, there is a painting by Willem Kalf depicting an aurochs horn. The horns of the last aurochs bulls, which died in 1620, were ornamented with gold and are located at the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm today.

Schneeberger writes that aurochs were hunted with arrows, nets and hunting dogs. With immobilized aurochs, a ritual was practised that might be regarded as cruel nowadays: the curly hair on the forehead was cut from the skull of the living animal. Belts were made out of this hair and were believed to increase the fertility of women. When the aurochs was slaughtered, a cross-like bone was extracted from the heart. This bone, which is also present in domestic cattle, contributed to the mystique of the animal and magical powers have been attributed to it.[8]

Coat of arms of Moldavia from 1481

In eastern Europe, where the aurochs survived until nearly 400 years ago, the aurochs has left traces in the phraseology. In Russia, a drunken person behaving badly was described as “behaving like an aurochs”, whereas in Poland, big strong people were characterized as being “a bloke like an aurochs”.[49]

There are cultural references to the aurochs in Central Europe as well, especially as toponyms and on heraldry. For example, the names Ursenbach and Aurach am Hongar are derived from the aurochs. An aurochs head, the traditional arms of the German region Mecklenburg, is included in the coat of arms of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The aurochs ("bour" in Romanian, probably derived from Latin bos urus → bourus → bour) was also the symbol of Moldavia; nowadays they can be found in the coat of arms of both Romania and Moldova. In modern-day Romania, there are villages named Boureni. The horn of the aurochs is a charge of the coat of arms of Tauragė, Lithuania, (the name itself of Tauragė is derived from "tauras" and "ragas", meaning "auroch" and "horn"). It is also present in the emblem of Kaunas, Lithuania, and was part of the emblem of Bukovina during its time as a Kronland of Austria-Hungary. The Swiss Canton of Uri is named after the aurochs; its yellow flag shows a black aurochs head. East Slavic surnames Turenin, Turishchev, Turov, Turovsky originate from the East Slavic name of the species (Tur).[50] In Slovakia there are toponyms like Turany, Turíčky, Turie, Turie Pole, Turík, Turová (villages), Turiec (river and region), Turská dolina (valley) and others. Turopolje, a large lowland floodplain south of the Sava river in Croatia, got its name from the once-abundant aurochs (Croatian: tur).

In 2002, a 3.5m-high and 7.1m-long statue of an aurochs was erected in Rakvere, Estonia for the town's 700th birthday. The sculpture, made by artist Tauno Kangro, has become a symbol of the town.[51]

See also

Notes

This article incorporates Creative Commons CC-BY-2.5 text from reference.[12]

  1. ^ a b Template:IUCN2008
  2. ^ ICZN, Biodiversity Studies
  3. ^ AHD4, headwords "aurochs", "urus", "wisent".
  4. ^ MWU, headwords "aurochs", "urus", "wisent".
  5. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.3366/anh.1994.21.3.275, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.3366/anh.1994.21.3.275 instead.
  6. ^ a b AHD4, headword "urus".
  7. ^ MWU, headword "urus".
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cis van Vuure: Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox. 2005, ISBN 954-642-235-5.
  9. ^ AHD4, headword "aurochs".
  10. ^ a b c MWU, headword "aurochs".
  11. ^ Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53033-4.
  12. ^ a b c Edwards C.J., Magee D.A., Park S.D.E., McGettigan P.A., Lohan A.J., et al. (2010). "A Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence from a Mesolithic Wild Aurochs (Bos primigenius)". PLoS ONE 5(2): e9255. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009255.
  13. ^ In the Light of Evolution III: Two Centuries of Darwin (2009), page 96, National Academies Press
  14. ^ Shanyuan Chen, Bang-Zhong Lin, Mumtaz Baig, Bikash Mitra, Ricardo J. Lopes, António M. Santos, David A. Magee, Marisa Azevedo, Pedro Tarroso, Shinji Sasazaki, Stephane Ostrowski, Osman Mahgoub, Tapas K. Chaudhuri, Ya-ping Zhang, Vânia Costa, Luis J. Royo, Félix Goyache, Gordon Luikart, Nicole Boivin, Dorian Q. Fuller, Hideyuki Mannen, Daniel G. Bradley, and Albano Beja-Pereira. "Zebu Cattle Are an Exclusive Legacy of the South Asia Neolithic", Mol Biol Evol (2010) 27(1): 1-6 first published online September 21, 2009
  15. ^ Beja-Pereira et al.: The origin of European cattle: Evidence from modern and ancient DNA, 2006.
  16. ^ a b c d e Walter Frisch: Der Auerochs: Das europäische Rind. 2010. ISBN 978-3-00-026764-2
  17. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.3366/anh.1995.22.3.437, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.3366/anh.1995.22.3.437 instead.
  18. ^ René Kysely: "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), 2008.
  19. ^ [1]
  20. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1016/0305-4403(84)90045-1, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1016/0305-4403(84)90045-1 instead.
  21. ^ Axel Beutler: Die Großtierfauna Europas und ihr Einfluss auf Vegetation und Landschaft. 1996.
  22. ^ Magret Bunzel-Drüke, Joachim Drüke & Henning Vierhaus: Der Einfluss von Großherbivoren auf die Naturlandschaft Mitteleuropas. 2001.
  23. ^ Anthony H. Lynch, Julie Hamilton & Robert E. M. Hedges: Where the Wild Things Are: Aurochs and Cattle in England. 2008.
  24. ^ Bunzel-Drüke, Finck, Kämmer, Luick, Reisinger, Riecken, Riedl, Scharf & Zimball: "Wilde Weiden: Praxisleitfaden für Ganzjahresbeweidung in Naturschutz und Landschaftsentwicklung
  25. ^ Bradley DG, MacHugh DE, Cunningham P, Loftus RT, "Mitochondrial diversity and the origins of African and European cattle", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, May 14, 1996; 93(10):5131–5.
  26. ^ a b Albano Beja-Pereira, et al., "The origin of European cattle: Evidence from modern and ancient DNA", PNAS, May 23, 2006, vol. 103, no. 21, 8113–8118
  27. ^ Molecular Biology and Evolution, March 14, 2012.
  28. ^ "Rescuing a Mesolithic foreshore". Time Team. Season 11. Episode 8. 2004-02-22. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3243, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1098/rspb.2005.3243 instead.
  30. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.019, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.019 instead.
  31. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003418, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0003418 instead.
  32. ^ CJ Edwards, R Bollongino, A Scheu…, "Mitochondrial analysis shows a Neolithic Near Eastern origin for domestic cattle and no evidence of domestication of European aurochs". Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, 2007
  33. ^ "History, Morphology And Ecology Of The Aurochs" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-08-09. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  34. ^ McKenzie, Steven (2010-02-17). "Ancient giant cattle genome first". BBC News.
  35. ^ Zong, G. (1984). "A record of Bos primigenius from the Quaternary of the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Region". Vertebrata PalAsiatica, Volume XXII No. 3, pp. 239–245
  36. ^ Rokosz’, Mieczyslaw (1995). "History of the Aurochs (Bos Taurus Primigenius) in Poland" (PDF). Animal Genetics Resources Information. 16. Food and Agriculture Organization: 5–12.
  37. ^ TaurOs Project
  38. ^ FREE Nature über das Rodopische Kurzhorn-Rind
  39. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1017/S0030605300035286, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1017/S0030605300035286 instead.
  40. ^ Polish geneticists want to recreate the extinct auroch; 2007-11-28; Science and Scholarship in Poland; Polish Press Agency (PAP)
  41. ^ Stichting Taurus Vee, 2010 (Dutch)]
  42. ^ "Breeding Ancient Cattle Back from Extinction", TIME, Stephan Faris, Feb. 12, 2010
  43. ^ Stichting Taurus, Official website
  44. ^ (Phyllis Goldman, 2011, "Pheobe's Unusual Mysteries... Footprints in Time" San Francisco: Allosaurus Publishers http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rc9nmzy_FasC&oi=fnd&pg=PT3&dq=elasmotherium+unicorn&ots=FUGTguBGd6&sig=qmCl-38qmjc6J_Z1EJgqmCcJ448#v=onepage&q=elasmotherium%20unicorn&f=false)
  45. ^ http://www.lorientlejour.com/category/À+La+Une/article/767714/Et_si_Europe_etait_sidonienne_.html
  46. ^ (Strong's # 07214) in the Bible (Numbers 23:22 and 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9–10, Psalms 22:21, 29:6, 92:10 and Isaiah 34:7)
  47. ^ The identification was first made by Johann Ulrich Duerst, Die Rinder von Babylonian, Assyrien und Ägypten(Berlin, 1899:7-8), and was generally accepted, as by Salo Jonas, "Cattle Raising in Palestine" Agricultural History 26.3 (July 1952), pp. 93-104
  48. ^ (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Entry for 'Wild Ox', Copyright, 1939, by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)
  49. ^ Cis van Vuure: History, Morphology and Ecology of the Aurochs (Bos primigenius). 2002.
  50. ^ Russian Surnames. Popular Etymological Dictionary. Yu. A. Fedosyuk. 6th Ed.
  51. ^ Rakvere linn Template:Et icon

Further reading

  • Heptner, V. G. ; Nasimovich, A. A. ; Bannikov, A. G. ; Hoffman, R. S. (1988) Mammals of the Soviet Union, Volume I, Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Libraries and National Science Foundation
  • Cis van Vuure: Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox. 2005, ISBN 954-642-235-5

References

  • American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition (AHD4). Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Headwords aurochs, urus, wisent.
  • Bunzel-Drüke, M. 2001. Ecological substitutes for Wild Horse (Equus ferus Boddaert, 1785 = E. przewalslii Poljakov, 1881) and Aurochs (Bos primigenius Bojanus, 1827). Natur- und Kulturlandschaft, Höxter/Jena, 4, 10 p. AFKP. Online pdf (298 kB)
  • C. Julius Caesar. Caesar's Gallic War. Translator. W. A. McDevitte. Translator. W. S. Bohn. 1st Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1869. Harper's New Classical Library.
  • 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): conserved. Bull.Zool.Nomencl., 60:81–84.
  • Merriam-Webster Unabridged (MWU). (Online subscription-based reference service of Merriam-Webster, based on Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002.) Headword aurochs. Accessed 2007-06-02.
  • Shaffer, Jim G. (1995). Cultural tradition and Palaeoethnicity in South Asian Archaeology. In: Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia. Ed. George Erdosy. ISBN 81-215-0790-1
  • Shaffer, Jim G. (1999). Migration, Philology and South Asian Archaeology. In: Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia. Ed. Bronkhorst and Deshpande. ISBN 1-888789-04-2.
  • Vuure, T. van. 2002. History, morphology and ecology of the Aurochs (Bos primigenius). Lutra 45-1. Online pdf (603 kB)
  • Vuure, C. van. 2005. Retracing the Aurochs: History, Morphology and Ecology of an Extinct Wild Ox. Pensoft Publishers. Sofia-Moscow.
  • Wilson, Don E. and DeeAnn M. Reeder: Mammals.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aurochs.
Wikispecies has information related to Aurochs.

Template:Link GA Template:Link FA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Aurochs&oldid=530928889"