A domestic cow has been used as a species for many millennia, but who was the ancestor of a cow, because all domesticated animal species once had wild ancestors and brothers ?! It looked and where the ancestor of all the cows looked and is told in this article.
What type of cow is it?
An ordinary domestic cow belongs to the artiodactyl family of ruminants, and the name of the animal (cow) comes from the ancient Greek "keraos", which means "horned". A cow is a female of an ordinary bull, which many thousands of years ago was tamed and domesticated by human ancestors. It is interesting that this species of animals at different ages has different names:
- A cow is an adult female who already had offspring.
- a calf is a baby of a cow up to 8-10 months.
- heifers or heifers - this is the name of the future cow, which has reached puberty and is ready for mating, or an already seeded individual.
- A bull is an adult male that inseminates cows and heifers.
- An ox is a castrated bull intended for meat.
When were the cows domesticated?
Who were the ancestors of a domestic cow, did anyone think? After all, initially all species of animals and birds were wild, and domestic species appeared thanks to the efforts of our ancestors. Cows, or rather its ancestors, already lived on the planet during the Neolithic period, from about the eighth century BC.
Ancient people domesticated this animal after goats and pigs, because in those days people began to gather in large tribes and lead a sedentary lifestyle. Most likely, they were seduced by the power of the ancestors of the cow: the first tamed animals were used as draft power, the later opportunity to always have fresh milk as food became another significant factor for domesticating cattle. Therefore, the gaze of a man fell on the then-inhabited tour, a wild bull from the bovine family that lived on the territory of present-day Central Asia.
Wild ancestor of a domestic cow
The tour is a powerful artiodactyl, which reached a height of 180 cm (at the withers) and had a weight, often reaching a ton, but the body was muscular, and not swimming with fat. This ancestor of a cow usually had a black color in bulls, and females were more often brownish or red, but individuals of a mixed color were also found. The head of the tour was set high on a powerful neck, the horns were sharp and rather long: often more than a meter in length and weighing about 12 kg, they bent like a lyre and rushed forward towards the enemy.
These animals fed mainly on leaves and young shoots of shrubs and trees, grass and fallen fruits of fruit trees, lived in small groups, but in winter gathered more often in larger herds, although most predators were not afraid of this animal: aggressive temper, powerful muscles and large horns repelled anyone. Only individuals weakened by illness or age could become the object of attack by wolves, lions and other wild animals.
Where did they live?
In ancient times, the ancestor of a cow was found throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and even in the Caucasus and North Africa, but by the third century BC. e. in Africa was already exterminated by man. The meat and skin of the tour appealed to the most dangerous predator of the planet, so by 600 BC there were no more tours in the territory of Mesopotamia.
Are there tours in nature now?
Intensive deforestation in the 9th-11th centuries of our era in Europe led to the fact that the tour as a species significantly decreased and gradually disappeared, in the territory of modern Ukraine the tours still met until the 12th century, and by 1550 they remained only in Poland, and thanks to the decree of Sigismund the Third, who wished to keep the tours as a species in his reserve. By 1564, only 30 individuals remained in this place, and 1620 - only one female.
The wild ancestor of the cow as a species ceased to exist in 1627, when the last turica died, in Yaktorov (Ukraine) in its honor a monolithic boulder with an inscription was installed. The cause of death of an isolated herd is considered to be a banal degradation of genes when individuals related in kinship (father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister) cross. It was obvious that the herd had no chance.
Historians believe that the cause of the mass extinction of tours around the planet was the active and ruthless activity of man: on the one hand, the economic - deforestation, plowing of land for fields, and hunting for this beast, because in the Middle Ages it was considered prestigious to get the head of this animal. Having survived the Ice Age and more than a million years of evolution, this magnificent animal fell under the pressure of an individual, several times smaller than it.
How did the tour become a pet?
In the process of domestication, the tour as a species gradually mutated into a smaller individual, but milk production increased, which was one of the decisive factors in the selection of producers. The height of the animals became less by a good half a meter, the weight also decreased by 300-350 kg, and the horns gradually became shorter, since often people sawed their peaks too sharp. At the same time, the genetic studies of scientists proved that cows had more than one ancestor, but domestication began in parallel from several groups in different territories of the planet.
The memory of the ancestor of the cow - the tour still lives with the peoples of Ukraine, there is a proverb “He has a nature like that of a tour”, reflecting the aggressive and restive temper of a person who is not afraid of anything. Also, the word “turn” reminds of this animal man, that is, strongly push, “poke” - a push with the subsequent fall of the opponent. According to some versions, a chess tour is a figure named after a wild animal famous for its power and strength. Cattle has become one of the symbols of wealth.
Who else is a relative of the tour?
Scientists consider the Lydian fighting bull, which is used in bullfights in Spain and Portugal, as well as the Heck bull, which was bred by breeders in the 1920s and 30s in Germany, closest in phenotype to the ancestor of a cow. Heck's bull is named after the Heck brothers: Heinz and Lutz, who, at the request of Hitler, were engaged in breeding the breed that was as similar as possible to the ancient tour. The project was closed during the war, and "fascist cows" were tried to exterminate. Fortunately, several individuals survived in zoos, which after 1970 again became the object of research.
Also close relatives of the tour are gray Ukrainian cattle, watussi - cattle in Africa, as well as zebu - now living on the territory of Hindustan and nearby lands.
It is a mistake to consider that the living and fairly common buffaloes are also descendants of the tour, in fact this is a separate species. The tour belongs to the order of bulls, and the buffaloes belong to the same name, since their morphological differences do not allow the reproduction of offspring: bulls have 60 chromosomes in a cage, and buffalo only 58.
Is there a clone of the tour?
In one of the caves of Derbyshire, in the central part of England, the remains of an ancestor of a cow that are more than six thousand years old are found. Several leading institutes in the UK and Ireland conducted a thorough analysis of the genetic material and produced the first DNA strand of the tour. Polish scientists intend to use these data for cloning the animal, their desire is actively supported by the Polish Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Whether this procedure is necessary for society and whether it entails the mass cloning of long-extinct animals and birds, scientists do not advertise, and there are suspicions that these experiments have long been carried out under the heading "secretly" so as not to disturb unstable minds of people.