Editing Aurochs (section)

== Description ==
{{multiple image
| perrow = 1
| image1 = Tur ZHerberstein pol XVIw small.jpg
| caption1 = Illustration by Sigismund von Herberstein captioned: {{lang|la|Urus sum, polonis Tur, germanis Aurox; ignari Bisontis nomen dederant}}; translated: "I am Urus, {{lang|pl|Tur}} in Polish, {{lang|de|Aurox}} in German; the ignorant ones gave me the name Bison"
| image2 = Copenhagen Zoological Museum Aurochs bull.jpg
| caption2 = Aurochs skeleton from [[Zealand]] island in Denmark on display in the [[Natural History Museum of Denmark]]
}}

According to a 16th-century description by [[Sigismund von Herberstein]], the aurochs was pitch-black with a grey streak along the back; his wood carving made in 1556 was based on a culled aurochs, which he had received in [[Mazovia]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Senglaub, K. |year=2002 |title=Sigmund von Herberstein (1486–1566) und die historischen Konfusionen um Ur und Wisent |journal=Säugetierkundliche Informationen |volume=5 |issue=26 |pages=253–266 |doi= |url=https://www.zobodat.at/biografien/Herberstein_Sigmund_von_Saeugetierkdl-Inf_26_0253-0266.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.zobodat.at/biografien/Herberstein_Sigmund_von_Saeugetierkdl-Inf_26_0253-0266.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1827, [[Charles Hamilton Smith]] published an image of an aurochs that was based on an [[oil painting]] that he had purchased from a merchant in [[Augsburg]], which is thought to have been made in the early 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lydekker, R. |author-link=Richard Lydekker |year=1912 |location=London |publisher=Methuen &Co. Ltd. |title=The ox and its kindred |pages=37–67 |chapter=The wild Ox and its extermination |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxitskindred00lyde/page/50/mode/2up}}</ref> This painting is thought to have shown an aurochs,<ref name="vVuure05"/><ref name="Frisch"/> although some authors suggested it may have shown a hybrid between an aurochs and domestic cattle, or a Polish steer.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pyle |first1=C.M. |title=Update to: "Some late sixteenth-century depictions of the aurochs (''Bos primigenius'' Bojanus, extinct 1627): New evidence from Vatican MS Urb. Lat. 276 |doi=10.3366/anh.1995.22.3.437 |journal=Archives of Natural History |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=437–438 |year=1995 |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/anh.1995.22.3.437?src=recsys}}</ref> Contemporary reconstructions of the aurochs are based on [[skeleton]]s and the information derived from contemporaneous artistic depictions and historic descriptions of the animal.<ref name="vVuure05"/>

=== Coat colour{{anchor|Coat colour}} ===
Remains of aurochs hair were not known until the early 1980s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ryder, M.L. |doi=10.1016/0305-4403(84)90045-1 |title=The first hair remains from an aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') and some medieval domestic cattle hair |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=11 |pages=99–101 |year=1984|issue=1 |bibcode=1984JArSc..11...99R }}</ref> Depictions show that the North African aurochs may have had a light saddle marking on its back.<ref name="Frisch">{{cite book |title=Der Auerochs: Das europäische Rind |first=W. |last=Frisch |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-00-026764-2 |publisher=Lipp Graphische Betriebe |place=Starnberg}}</ref> Calves were probably born with a chestnut colour, and young bulls changed to black with a white [[eel stripe]] running down the spine, while cows retained a reddish-brown colour. Both sexes had a light-coloured muzzle, but evidence for variation in coat colour does not exist. Egyptian grave paintings show cattle with a reddish-brown coat colour in both sexes, with a light saddle, but the horn shape of these suggest that they may depict domesticated cattle.<ref name="vVuure05"/>
Many primitive cattle breeds, particularly those from Southern Europe, display similar coat colours to the aurochs, including the black colour in bulls with a light eel stripe, a pale mouth, and similar sexual dimorphism in colour.<ref name="vVuure05"/><ref name="Frisch"/> A feature often attributed to the aurochs is blond forehead hairs. According to historical descriptions of the aurochs, it had long and curly forehead hair, but none mentions a certain colour. Although the colour is present in a variety of primitive cattle breeds, it is probably a discolouration that appeared after domestication.<ref name="vVuure05"/>

=== Body shape ===
{{multiple image
| perrow = 1
| image1 = Aurochsfeatures.jpg
| caption1 = Drawing based on an aurochs bull skeleton from [[Lund]] and a cow skeleton from [[Cambridge]], with characteristic features of the aurochs
| image2 = Indian Aurochs B p namadicus 3.jpg
| caption2 = Speculative profile of an Indian aurochs
}}

The proportions and body shape of the aurochs were strikingly different from many modern cattle breeds. For example, the legs were considerably longer and more slender, resulting in a shoulder height that nearly equalled the trunk length. The skull, carrying the large horns, was substantially larger and more elongated than in most cattle breeds. As in other wild bovines, the body shape of the aurochs was athletic, and especially in bulls, showed a strongly expressed neck and shoulder musculature. Therefore, the fore hand was larger than the rear, similar to the wisent, but unlike many domesticated cattle. Even in carrying cows, the udder was small and hardly visible from the side; this feature is equal to that of other wild bovines.<ref name="vVuure05"/>

=== Size ===
The aurochs was one of the largest [[herbivore]]s in [[Holocene]] Europe. The size of an aurochs appears to have varied by region, with larger specimens in northern Europe than farther south. Aurochs in Denmark and Germany ranged in height at the shoulders between {{cvt|155|-|180|cm}} in bulls and {{cvt|135|-|155|cm}} in cows, while aurochs bulls in [[Hungary]] reached {{cvt|160|cm}}.<ref name="Kysely2008">{{cite journal |last=Kysely |first=R. |year=2008 |title=Aurochs and potential crossbreeding with domestic cattle in Central Europe in the Eneolithic period. A metric analysis of bones from the archaeological site of Kutná Hora-Denemark (Czech Republic) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285784105 |journal=Anthropozoologica |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=7–37}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Linseele2004>{{cite journal |last=Linseele, V. |year=2004 |title=Size and size change of the African aurochs during the Pleistocene and Holocene |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=165–185 |doi=10.3213/1612-1651-10026 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269674903}}</ref>

The body mass of aurochs appears to have shown some variability. Some individuals reached around {{cvt|700|kg|-1}}, whereas those from the late Middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to {{cvt|1500|kg|-1}}.<ref name="vVuure05"/> The aurochs exhibited considerable [[sexual dimorphism]] in the size of males and females.<ref name=vuure>{{cite journal |last=Van Vuure |first=T. |date=2002 |title=History, morphology and ecology of the Aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') |journal=Lutra |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=1–16 |citeseerx=10.1.1.534.6285 }}</ref>

=== Horns ===
The horns were massive, reaching {{cvt|80|cm}} in length and between {{cvt|10|and|20|cm}} in diameter.<ref name="Frisch"/> Its horns grew from the skull at a 60-degree angle to the muzzle facing forwards and were curved in three directions, namely upwards and outwards at the base, then swinging forwards and inwards, then inwards and upwards. The curvature of bull horns was more strongly expressed than horns of cows.<ref name="vVuure05"/> The basal circumference of [[horn core]]s reached {{cvt|44.5|cm}} in the largest Chinese specimen and {{cvt|48|cm}} in a French specimen.<ref name=zongg/> Some cattle breeds still show horn shapes similar to that of the aurochs, such as the Spanish fighting bull, and occasionally also individuals of derived breeds.<ref name="vVuure05"/>

===Genetics===
A well-preserved aurochs bone yielded sufficient mitochondrial DNA for a [[sequence analysis]] in 2010, which showed that its genome consists of 16,338 [[base pairs]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Edwards, C.J. |author2=Magee, D.A. |author3=Park, S.D.E. |author4=McGettigan, P.A. |author5=Lohan, A.J. |name-list-style=amp |year=2010 |title=A complete mitochondrial genome sequence from a mesolithic wild Aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=5 |issue=2 |page=e9255 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0009255 |doi-access=free |pmid=20174668 |pmc=2822870 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...5.9255E}}</ref> Further studies using the aurochs whole genome sequence have identified candidate microRNA-regulated [[Genomics of domestication|domestication genes]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Braud |first1=M. |last2=Magee|first2=D.A. |last3=Park |first3=S.D.E. |last4=Sonstegard |first4=T.S. |last5=Waters|first5=S.M. |last6=MacHugh |first6=D.E. |last7=Spillane|first7=C. |date=2017 |title=Genome-wide microRNA binding site variation between extinct wild Aurochs and modern cattle identifies candidate microRNA-regulated domestication genes |journal=Frontiers in Genetics |volume=8 |pages=3 |doi=10.3389/fgene.2017.00003 |pmc=5281612 |pmid=28197171 |doi-access=free |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> A comprehensive sequence analysis of Late Pleistocene and Holocene aurochs published in 2024 suggested that Indian aurochs (represented by modern zebu cattle) were the most genetically divergent aurochs population, having diverged from other aurochs around 300–166,000 years ago, with other aurochs populations spanning Europe and the Middle East to East Asia sharing much more recent common ancestry within the last 100,000 years. Late Pleistocene European aurochs were found to have a small (~3%) ancestry component from a divergent lineage that split prior to the divergence of Indian and other aurochs, suggested to be residual from earlier European aurochs populations. Towards the end of the Late Pleistocene, European aurochs experienced considerable gene flow from Middle Eastern aurochs. European Holocene aurochs primarily descend from those that were present in the Iberian Peninsula during the [[Last Glacial Maximum]], with the Holocene also seeing mixing between previously isolated aurochs populations.<ref name=Rossi2024>{{Cite journal |last1=Rossi |first1=C. |last2=Sinding |first2=M.-H.S. |last3=Mullin |first3=V.E. |last4=Scheu |first4=A. |last5=Erven |first5=J.A.M. |last6=Verdugo |first6=M.P. |last7=Daly |first7=K.G. |last8=Ciucani |first8=M.M. |last9=Mattiangeli |first9=V. |last10=Teasdale |first10=M.D. |last11=Diquelou |first11=D. |last12=Manin |first12=A. |last13=Bangsgaard |first13=P. |last14=Collins |first14=M. |last15=Lord |first15=T.C. |date=2024 |title=The genomic natural history of the aurochs |journal=Nature |volume=635 |issue=8037 |pages=136–141 |doi=10.1038/s41586-024-08112-6 |pmid=39478219|bibcode=2024Natur.635..136R }}</ref>