The Ancestor of Domestic Cattle-they are not all cows and they do not reproduce asexually..

Restoration of the aurochs based on a bull skeleton from Lund and a cow skeleton from Cambridge, with chart of characteristic external features of the aurochs

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.