Going back in time, from about 4000-5000 years BC, cattle also migrated into Africa (Hodges & Payne 1997). Moreover, North Asia might have been colonized through the Caucasus route.

Remains of Neolithic farms in Europe revealed that cattle migrated along two routes, the Mediterranean coasts and the Danube river, respectively, arriving in the North Sea coasts around 3000 years BC (Barker 1985). This short-horns cattle was the most common form in Europe from about 1000 years BC (Lenstra et al. This phenotype was more suitable for those habitats and replaced by a second wave of migrations (Epstein & Mason 1984) most long-horns forms in Asia and neighbouring continents, reaching Britain around 1000-2000 years BC. About 3000 years BC the first cattle with short horns appeared in Mesopotamia. The first domestic cattle was a form with long horns, a phenotype that is still common in several British, French, Mediterranean and African breeds. 2010).Īpproximately 8500 years BC, after the domestications of sheep and goat, taurine cattle were domesticated in the Near East from the wild and now extinct aurochs ( Bos primigenius, Helmer et al. Nowadays, our understanding of the early history of cattle domestication is based mainly on analysis of mitochondrial DNA (Groeneveld et al. Wild cattle are therefore valuable today as a genetic pool for ensuring that domestic breeds can adapt to changing pressures, such as climate and disease (Melletti & Burton 2014). This domestication process has provided many benefits to humans, from meat and milk, to draught animals (see also Chapter 3 in my book for more details).

Five species of wild cattle have been domesticated approximately in the last 10500 years (Helmer et al.

The link between wild cattle and humans has existed for thousands of years.

Taurine cattle