The Indian aurochs[b] (Bos primigenius namadicus;
Sindhi: انڊين جهنگلي ڏاند) is an extinct
subspecies of
aurochs that inhabited
West Asia and the
Indian subcontinent from the
Late Pleistocene until its eventual extinction during the
South Asian Stone Age.[1] With no remains younger than 3,800
YBP ever recovered, the Indian aurochs was the first of the three aurochs subspecies to become extinct; the Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius) and the North African aurochs (B. p. mauritanicus) persevered longer, with the latter bring known by the
Roman Empire, and the former surviving until the mid-
17th century in
Central Europe.[1][4][5][2]
Two breeds/subspecies of
domestic cattle (Bos taurus), the
sanga (B. t. africanus) and the
zebu (B. t. indicus), can trace their genetic heritage directly to the Indian aurochs.[6][7][8][9]
Description
The Indian aurochs is known exclusively from fossil and subfossil records, where it shows only
minimal morphologic differences to the Eurasian subspecies (B. p. primigenius).[10] The Indian aurochs was probably smaller than its Eurasian counterpart but had proportionally larger horns.[11] Because the range of the aurochs species was continuous from the
Atlantic coasts of
North Africa and
Europe to
Bengal, it is uncertain whether there was a distinction or a continuum between the Eurasian, North African and Indian subspecies.[11]
The last common ancestor of Indian aurochs and Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius) is estimated to have lived about 150±50 ka BP, based on genetic analyses of living zebus and taurine cattle, the domesticated but heavily
interbred descendants of those two aurochs subspecies.[14][failed verification][15]
Zebu and many Sanga cattle breeds are phenotypically distinguished from taurine cattle by the presence of a prominent shoulder hump.[16]
Range
The author Cis Van Vuure considers the aurochs species to have originated about 2 million years ago in India and spread westwards.[11][failed verification] Most other authors consider an origin in Africa, where the species' oldest ever remains were found, from ancestors in the
Pelorovis genus and a subsequent expansion into Eurasia more likely.[17][18][5][19][4]
The most recent remains from presesnt-day southern India, which clearly belong to the Indian aurochs are from
Banahalli in
Karnataka, with an age of about 4,200 YBP. Further north, the most recent remains date from 3,800 YBP and were found at
Mahagara in what is now
Uttar Pradesh.[4]
The Indian aurochs was most likely domesticated in the Indus River valley, now the
Baluchistan region of
Pakistan around 9,000 YBP, with subsequent breeding efforts eventually leading to zebu or indicine cattle.[20] The domestication process seems to have been prompted by the arrival of new crop species from the
Near East around 9,000 YBP. Human pastoralism, enabled by domestic cattle, spread throughout the subcontinent around 5,500–4,000 YBP. Secondary domestication events - instances of additional genetic diversity acquired from interbreeding domesticated proto-indicine stock with wild aurochs cows - occurred very frequently in the Ganges basin but less so in southern India.[citation needed]
Domestic zebu are recorded from the Indus region since 6,000 BC and from south India, the middle Ganges region, and present-day Gujarat since 3,500–2,000 BC. Discounting
gayal and
banteng, domestic cattle seem to have been absent in southern China and
southeast Asia until 2,000–1,000 BC, when indicine cattle first appeared there.[4]
Feral zebu rewilding attempts
A
feral zebu herd was initiated at
Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in
Madhya Pradesh.[21] The cattle were set free in the sanctuary to act as an attractant for the critically endangered
Asiatic lion(Panthera leo persica). To the west, in the state of
Gujarat, is the Asiatic lions' true last bastion, where the big cats are known to have a taste for zebu—notably in and around
Gir National Park. Furthermore, the presence of the zebu within Kuno can potentially conserve and improve the entire ecosystem and landscape dramatically, as apex predators are vital to a healthy functioning ecosystem, on all levels. By attracting lions—or possibly other rare or vulnerable predators (such as
Bengal tigers,
dholes,
Indian wolves, or
leopards)—the zebu will fill the
ecological niche of their prehistoric ancestors.[22][23]
Notes
^aurochs horns and taurine cattle's head edited into this image of a
zebu:
^"Aurochs" is both the singular and the plural term used to refer to the animal.[3]
^
abcdChen et al., 2010: "Zebu cattle are an exclusive legacy of the South Asia Neolithic." Molecular biology and evolution, 27(1), 1-6.
[1] (in Supplementary Data)
^
abcdCis van Vuure: Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox. 2005,
ISBN954-642-235-5.
^Mathpal, Yashodhar (1984). Prehistoric Painting Of Bhimbetka. Abhinav Publications.
ISBN978-81-7017-193-5.
^Sen, Sailendra Nath (1999). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. New Age International.
ISBN978-81-224-1198-0.
^Verkaar, Nijman, Beeke, Hanekamp & Lenstra: Maternal and Paternal Lineages in Cross-breeding bovine species. Has Wisent a Hybrid Origin?. 2004.
^MacHugh et al., 1997: "Microsatellite DNA Variation and the Evolution, Domestication and Phylogeography of Taurine and Zebu Cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus)". Genetics, Vol. 146, 1071–1086.
Abstract
^Loftus et al., 1994: "Evidence for two independent domestications of cattle." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 91.7: 2757-2761.
Abstract