The aurochs (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of many domestic cattle, was a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but which is now extinct; it survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs, a female probably a cow, died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627. Her skull is now the property of the Livrustkammaren ("Royal Armory") museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
The word "aurochs" comes to
ENGLISH from German, where its normal spelling and declension today is
Auerochs/Auerochse (singular), Auerochsen (genitive), Auerochsen (plural). The
declension in English varies, being either "auroch" (singular),
"aurochs" (plural) or "aurochs" (singular), "aurochses"
(plural). The declension "auroch" (singular), "aurochs"
(plural), acknowledged by MWU, is a back-formation analogous to
"pea"-from-"pease" derived from a misinterpretation of the
singular form ending in the /s/ sound (being cognate to "ox/Ochs(e)").
The use in English of the plural form "aurochsen" is not acknowledged
by AHD4 or MWU, but is mentioned in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language. It is directly parallel to the German plural and analogous
(and cognate) to English "ox" (singular), "oxen" (plural).
The words "aurochs",
"urus", and "wisent" have all been used synonymously; however,
the extinct aurochs/urus is a completely separate species from the still-extant
wisent. The two were often confused, and some 16th century illustrations of
aurochs and wisents have hybrid features. The word urus (/ˈjʊərəs/)
comes to English from Latin, but may have come to Latin from Germanic origins-
such as English. It declines in English as urus (singular), uruses (plural). In
the German language, Ur derived to Auer in course of a diphthongization in the
language during the 13th century. Later, "-ochs" as added, which is
meant to refer to a wild bovine. This is how the German name of the animal
turned to Auerochs/Auerochse.
The name of the aurochs in other
languages seems to be derived by "urus" as well. Such as uro (spanish
language) or urokse (danish language).
Records show that during the early
Holocene in course of the Neolithic Revolution, aurochs were domesticated in at
least two domestication events. One, concerning the Indian subspecies, lead to
Zebu cattle, and the other one concerning the Eurasian subspecies lead to
taurine cattle. Other species of wild bovines were domesticated as well, such as the
Wild water buffalo, Gaur and Banteng. In modern cattle, there are
numerous breeds that share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a dark
colour of the bulls with a light eel stripe and light colour in cows, or a
typical aurochs-like horn shape.
Evolution
During the pliocene, the
colder climate caused an extension of open grassland, which increased the
evolution of large grazers, such as wild bovines. Bos acutifrons is an extinct
species of cattle sometimes claimed to be the ancestor of aurochs, but it was a
species with very long, outwards-facing horns. The oldest aurochs remains come
from about 2 million years, India. Therefore, the Indian subspecies was the
first aurochs subspecies to appear. During the pleistocene, the species
migrated into the Middle East and further into Asia, and reached Europe about
270,000 years ago. The South Asian domestic cattle, or zebu, descended from
Indian aurochs at the edge of the Thar Desert; this would explain the zebu's
resistance to drought. Domestic yak, gayal and Javan cattle do not descend from
aurochs.©Al (Alex-Alexander)DGirvan. All rights reserved.
