The aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius) was a very large type of wild cattle, characterized by their lyre shaped forward pointing horns which, according to the Paleontologisk Museum, University of Oslo, evolved in India some two million years ago, migrated into the Middle East and further into Asia, and reached Europe about 250,000 years ago. At one time there existed three aurochs subspecies, namely Bos primigenius namadicus (Falconer, 1859) that occurred in India, the Bos primigenius mauretanicus (Thomas, 1881) from North Africa and the Bos primigenius primigenius (Bojanus, 1827) from Europe and the Middle East. Only the European subspecies survived until recent times, becoming extinct in 1627. and it is this subspecies that is considered to be the ancestor of all modern European cattle existing today. Considerably larger than today's cattle, an Auroch bull stood about 17 hands (68 inches) high at the shoulder, and weighed over 2000 pounds. This model depicts one of these large male Aurochs #auroch #aurochen #aurochs #bull #cattle #cow
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