The Indian aurochs[b] (Bos primigenius namadicus) 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 being known to 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. 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]
Rock painting at Bhimbetka dated to 8,000 - 3,000 BCE depicting a humpless bovine.
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 2million 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 4,200YBP. Further north, the most recent remains date from 3,800YBP 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 9,000YBP, 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 9,000YBP. Human pastoralism, enabled by domestic cattle, spread throughout the subcontinent around 5,500–4,000YBP. 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 6,000BCE and from south India, the middle Ganges region, and present-day Gujarat since 3,500–2,000BCE. Discounting gayal and banteng, domestic cattle seem to have been absent in southern China and southeast Asia until 2,000–1,000BCE, when indicine cattle first appeared there.[4]
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 Asiatic lions—or possibly other rare or vulnerable predators (such as Bengal tigers, dholes, Indian wolves, or Indian 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]
1 2 3 4 Shanyuan, Chen; Bang-Zhong, Lin; Mumtaz, Baig; Bikash, Mitra; J., Lopes, Ricardo; M., Santos, António; A., Magee, David; Marisa, Azevedo; Pedro, Tarroso; Shinji, Sasazaki; Stephane, Ostrowski; Osman, Mahgoub; K., Chaudhuri, Tapas; Ya-ping, Zhang; Vânia, Costa (2010-01-01). "Zebu Cattle Are an Exclusive Legacy of the South Asia Neolithic". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 27 (1). doi:10.1093/molbev/m (inactive 19 October 2025). ISSN0737-4038. Archived from the original on 2024-06-19. Retrieved 2019-02-05.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of October 2025 (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
1 2 Linseele, Veerle (25 October 2004). "Size and Size Change of the African Aurochs During the Pleistocene and Holocene". Journal of African Archaeology. 2 (2): 165–185. doi:10.3213/1612-1651-10026. ISSN1612-1651.
↑ Grigson, Caroline (1 December 1991). "An African origin for African cattle? — some archaeological evidence". African Archaeological Review. 9 (1): 119–144. doi:10.1007/BF01117218. ISSN1572-9842. S2CID162307756.
1 2 3 4 Vuure, Cis van, ed. (2005). Retracing the aurochs: history, morphology and ecology of an extinct wild ox. Sofia: Pensoft. ISBN978-954-642-235-4.
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