Origin of Modern Cows Traced to Single Herd

[bluedigger]

A genetic study of cattle has claimed that all modern domesticated bovines are descended from a single herd of wild ox, which lived 10,500 years ago.

A team of geneticists from the National Museum of Natural History in France, the University of Mainz in Germany, and UCL in the UK excavated the bones of domestic cattle on archaeological sites in Iran, and then compared those to modern cows. They looked at how differences in DNA sequences could have arisen under different population history scenarios, modeled in computer simulations.

The team found that the differences that show up between the two populations could only have arisen if a relatively small number of animals — approximately 80 — had been domesticated from a now-extinct species of wild ox, known as aurochs, which roamed across Europe and Asia. Those cattle were then bred into the 1.4 billion cattle estimated by the UN to exist in mid-2011.

The process of collecting the data was tricky. Ruth Bollongino, lead author of the study, said in a press release: “Getting reliable DNA sequences from remains found in cold environments is routine. That is why mammoths were one of the first extinct species to have their DNA read. But getting reliable DNA from bones found in hot regions is much more difficult because temperature is so critical for DNA survival. This meant we had to be extremely careful that we did not end up reading contaminating DNA sequences from living, or only recently dead cattle.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/cattle-ox-origins/

[SamG]

1. Hard to believe, but interesting, nonetheless.

In a way it makes sense, because those that could domesticate cows and cattle would have to be rather sedentary in their living habits, (not roaming around as much as sheep herders could be).

This could also be helpful in tracing the geographic spread of humans engaged in cattle raising and cow herding. As we know, many cultures throughout the world, almost all from northern and sub Saharan Africa to Northern Europe, and the Middle East, Far East, raised cows and herded cattle. Were Native Americans cattle raising anywhere? Were all cattle in Central and North America introduced by Europeans? I can't recall.

[bluedigger]

2. Cattle are an Old World species.

The theory of one initial herd makes sense, I guess, but neighboring peoples must have adapted (rustled) the technology and spread it pretty rapidly, I would think.

I would recommend Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel for more information on the factors involved in the spread of domesticated species and the limitations in the New World that native Americans dealt with.