Just as all domestic dogs are descended from wolves, the cows we know today descended from wild aurochs that once populated Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Around 10,000 years ago, humans decided they would domesticate aurochs because they would be useful for pulling heavy weights and producing milk. Besides that, they were delicious. But you have to wonder how that was accomplished. Aurochs were huge, with bulls about six feet high at the shoulder. They were also aggressive, strong, and fearless. A dead auroch could provide plenty of meals, but a live one would be very difficult to capture, much less keep. People living on the other side of the world knew better than to even try to domesticate bison.
There are other mysteries about how we domesticated aurochs and ended up with cows. Genetic studies have shown that domesticated cattle and wild aurochs interbred in Europe up through the Middle Ages. Was that on purpose, and how did cattle breeders handle it? The last wild auroch died in 1627, but can we really say the auroch is extinct when all our domestic cattle are their descendants? Read what we know about the domestication of wild aurochs and how selective breeding turned them into cattle at Atlas Obscura.
(Image ceedit: Malene Thyssen)
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