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The aurochs ( Bos primigenius; or ; pl.: aurochs or aurochsen) is an extinct species of Bovini, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest in the Holocene; it had massive elongated and broad horns that reached 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 date to the Middle Pleistocene. The species had an expansive range spanning from Western Europe and North Africa to the Indian subcontinent and East Asia. The distribution of the aurochs progressively contracted during the Holocene due to habitat loss and hunting, with the last known individual dying in the Jaktorów forest in Poland in 1627.
There is a long history of interaction between aurochs and humans, including archaic hominins like Neanderthals. The aurochs is depicted in Paleolithic , Neolithic , and Bronze Age figurines. It symbolised power, sexual potency and prowess in religions of the ancient Near East. Its horns were used in , as trophies and .
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.
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, although aurochs may stand for both the singular and the plural term; both are attested.
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.
At least two insular dwarfism of aurochs developed on Mediterranean islands as a result of sea level changes during the Pleistocene:
The cold Pliocene climate caused an extension of open grassland, which enabled the evolution of large grazers.
The origin of the aurochs is unclear, with authors suggesting either an African or Asian origin for the species. Bos acutifrons is considered to be a possible ancestor of the aurochs, of which a fossil skull was excavated in the Sivalik Hills in India that dates to the Early Pleistocene about .An aurochs skull excavated in Tunisia's Kef Governorate from early Middle Pleistocene strata dating about is the oldest well-dated fossil specimen to date. The authors of the study proposed that Bos might have evolved in Africa and migrated to Eurasia during the Middle Pleistocene. Middle Pleistocene aurochs fossils were also excavated in a erg in the Hoggar Mountains.
Fossils of the Indian subspecies ( Bos primigenius namadicus) were excavated in in South India dating to the Middle Pleistocene. Remains of aurochs are common in Late Pleistocene sites across the Indian subcontinent.
The earliest fossils in Europe date to the Middle Pleistocene. One site widely historically suggested to represent the first appearance of aurochs in Europe was the Notarchirico site in southern Italy, dating around 600,000 years ago, however a 2024 re-examination of the site found that presence of aurochs at the locality was unsupported, with the oldest records of aurochs now placed at the Ponte Molle site in central Italy, dating to around 550–450,000 years ago. Aurochs were present in Britain by Marine Isotope Stage 11 ~400,000 years ago.
The earliest remains aurochs in East Asia are uncertain, but may date to the late Middle Pleistocene.
Late Pleistocene aurochs fossils were found in Affad 23 in Sudan dating to 50,000 years ago when the climate in this region was more humid than during the African humid period.
Following the most recent deglaciation, the range of the aurochs expanded into Denmark and southern Sweden at the beginning of the Holocene, around 12–11,000 years ago.
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.
The body mass of aurochs appears to have shown some variability. Some individuals reached around , whereas those from the late Middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to . The aurochs exhibited considerable sexual dimorphism in the size of males and females.
Fossil horns attributed to the aurochs were found in Late Pleistocene deposits at an elevation of on the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau close to the Heihe River in Zoigê County that date to about 26,620±600 years BP. Most fossils in China were found in plains below in Heilongjiang, Yushu, Jilin, northeastern Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, near Beijing, Yangyuan County in Hebei province, Datong and Dingcun in Shanxi province, Huan County in Gansu and in Guizhou provinces. Ancient DNA in aurochs fossils found in Northeast China indicate that the aurochs survived in the region until at least 5,000 years BP. Fossils were also excavated on North Korea,
and in the Japanese archipelago.During warm interglacial periods the aurochs was widespread across Europe, but during retreated into southern refugia in the Iberian, Italian and Balkans peninsulas.
Landscapes in Europe probably consisted of dense forests throughout much of the last few thousand years. The aurochs is likely to have used and along lakes. Analysis of specimens found in Britain suggests that aurochs preferred inhabiting low lying relatively flat landscapes. Pollen of mostly small found in fossiliferous with aurochs remains in China indicate that it preferred temperate grassy plains or bordering . It may have also lived in open grasslands. 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.
Mating season was in September, and calves were born in spring. Rutting bulls had violent fights, and evidence from the Jaktorów forest shows that they were fully capable of mortally wounding one another. In autumn, aurochs fed for the winter, gaining weight and possessing a shinier coat than during the rest of the year. Calves stayed with their mothers until they were strong enough to join and keep up with the herd on the feeding grounds. Aurochs calves would have been vulnerable to predation by grey wolves ( Canis lupus) and brown bears ( Ursus arctos), while the immense size and strength of healthy adult aurochs meant they likely did not need to fear most predators. According to historical descriptions, the aurochs was swift despite its build, could be very aggressive if provoked, and was not generally fearful of humans. In Middle Pleistocene Europe, aurochs were likely predated upon by the "European jaguar" Panthera gombaszogensis and the Homotherium ( Homotherium latidens), with evidence for the consumption of aurochs by ( Crocuta ( Crocuta) spelaea) having been found from Late Pleistocene Italy. The lion ( Panthera leo), tiger ( Panthera tigris) and wolf are thought to have been the aurochs' main predators during the Holocene.
During interglacial periods in the Middle Pleistocene and early Late Pleistocene in Europe, the aurochs occurred alongside other large temperate adapted megafauna species, including the straight-tusked elephant ( Palaeoloxodon antiquus), Merck's rhinoceros ( Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis), the narrow-nosed rhinoceros, ( Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) and the Irish elk ( Megaloceros giganteus).
Seals dating to the Indus Valley civilisation found in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro show an animal with curved horns like an aurochs.
Aurochs figurines were made by the Maykop culture in the Western Caucasus.The aurochs is denoted in the Akkadian words rīmu and rēmu, both used in the context of hunts by rulers such as Naram-Sin of Akkad, Tiglath-Pileser I and Shalmaneser III; in Mesopotamia, it symbolised power and sexual potency, was an epithet of the gods Enlil and Shamash, denoted prowess as an epithet of the king Sennacherib and the hero Gilgamesh. Wild bulls are frequently referred to in Ugaritic texts as hunted by and to the god Baal.
The aurochs is widely represented in Upper Paleolithic in the Chauvet Cave and Lascaux caves in southern France dating to 36,000 and 21,000 years BP, respectively. Two Paleolithic in the Romito Cave depict an aurochs. Palaeolithic engravings showing aurochs were also found in the Grotta del Genovese on the Italian island of Levanzo. 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.
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. Aurochs bones were also found in Mesolithic settlements by the Narva and Emajõgi rivers in Estonia. Aurochs and human bones were uncovered from pits and at several Neolithic sites in England. A cup found in the Greek site of Vaphio shows a hunting scene, in which people try to capture an aurochs. One of the bulls throws one hunter on the ground while attacking the second with its horns. The cup seems to date to Mycenaean Greece. Greeks and Paeonians hunted aurochs and used their huge horns as trophies, cups for wine, and offerings to the gods and heroes. The ox mentioned by Samus, Philippus of Thessalonica and Antipater as killed by Philip V of Macedon on the foothills of mountain Orvilos, was actually an aurochs; Philip offered the horns, which were long, and the skin to a temple of Hercules. The aurochs was described in Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Aurochs were occasionally captured and exhibited in venatio shows in Roman amphitheatres such as the Colosseum. Aurochs horns were often used by Romans as hunting horns.In the Nibelungenlied, Sigurd kills four aurochs.
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. 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.
Comparative analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and shared revealed admixture between East Asian aurochs and introduced taurine cattle in ancient China, for example at Shimao. This suggested the incorporation of local aurochs into domestic cattle as far back as 4,000 years BP, either through spontaneous introgression, or the capture of different aurochs groups to supplement domestic stocks. The same study detected derived alleles shared by aurochs and modern taurine cattle in East Asia, especially among Tibetan Plateau breeds. Introgression with local aurochs could have facilitated rapid adaptation to new environments.
The Indian aurochs is thought to have been domesticated 10,000–8,000 years ago. 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. 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. 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. The zebu was introduced to East Africa about 3,500–2,500 years ago, and reached Mongolia in the 13th and 14th centuries.
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. However, the same study supported extensive hybridization between taurine cattle in Africa, arrived from the Near East after domestication, and local wild African aurochs prior to the entry of the zebu in Africa. The zebu was introduced through Ancient Egypt and started to spread comprehensively through West Africa in the last 1,400 years, along with cultural influences. Most modern African cattle breeds are hybridized to a variable extent with Indicine cattle, with introgression being most reduced in areas of West Africa where the tse-tse fly is present.
A 2014 review suggested that the youngest remains of African aurochs ( B. p. mauritanicus) dated to around 6,000 years Before Present (BP), though some authors suggest that it may have survived until at least to the Roman period, as indicated by remains found in Buto and Faiyum in the Nile Delta.
In China, aurochs persisted until at least 3,600 BP.
The Eurasian aurochs ( B. p. primigenius) was present in southern Sweden during the Holocene climatic optimum until at least 7,800 years BP.
In Denmark, the first-known local extinction of the aurochs occurred after the sea level rise on the newly formed Danish islands about 8,000–7,500 years BP, and the last documented aurochs lived in southern Jutland around 3,000 years BP. The latest-known aurochs fossil in Great Britain dates to 3,245 years BP, and it was probably extinct by 3,000 years ago.Excessive hunting began and continued until the aurochs 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.
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. The population in Hungary was declining from at least the 9th century and was extinct in the 13th century.
Findings from subfossil records indicate that wild aurochs might have survived in northwestern Transylvania until the 14th to 16th century, in western Moldavia until probably the early 17th century.
The last-known aurochs herd lived in a 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.
A 2021 study argued that the aurochs possibly survived in northeastern Bulgaria until at least the 17th century. A horn-core excavated in 2020 in Sofia was identified as being from an aurochs; the archaeological layer in which it was found was dated to the second half of the 17th or first half of the 18th century, suggesting that aurochs may have survived in Bulgaria until that date.
Starting in 1996, Heck cattle were crossed with southern European cattle breeds such as Sayaguesa Cattle, Chianina and to a lesser extent Spanish Fighting Bulls in the hope of creating a more aurochs-like animal. The resulting crossbreeds are called Taurus Project. Other breeding-back projects are the Tauros Programme and the Uruz Project. However, approaches aiming at breeding an aurochs-like phenotype do not equate to an aurochs-like genotype.
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