Snow sheep | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Bovidae |
Subfamily: | Caprinae |
Tribe: | Caprini |
Genus: | Ovis |
Species: | O. nivicola |
Binomial name | |
Ovis nivicola Eschscholtz, 1829 | |
The snow sheep (Ovis nivicola), or Siberian bighorn sheep, is a species of sheep from the mountainous areas in the northeast of Siberia. One subspecies, the Putorana snow sheep (Ovis nivicola borealis), lives isolated from the other forms in the Putoran Mountains.
Ovis nivicola appeared about 600,000 years ago. A number of these wild sheep crossed the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia), from Siberia into Alaska, during the Pleistocene epoch (about 750,000 years ago); new and extant lineages were created from this migration, notably the North American Dall sheep (or thin-horn sheep) and the bighorn sheep, the two which O. nivicola is most closely related to.
Currently the mitochondrial genome of Ovis nivicola has been completely mapped out. [2]
A first-draft genome assembly exists for Ovis nivicola. [3]
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The Denisovans or Denisova hominins(di-NEE-sə-və) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains; consequently, most of what is known about them comes from DNA evidence. No formal species name has been established pending more complete fossil material.
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Putoransky State Nature Reserve( Путоранский заповедник ) is a Russian 'zapovednik' in the northern part of Central Siberia in Russian Federation, located about 100 km north of the Arctic Circle in Krasnoyarsk Krai, includes the Putorana Plateau. It was established in 1987, and since 1987 has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It covers an area of 1,887,252 hectares of which 1,773,300 are monitored. Its headquarters are in Norilsk.
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