Kingdom Animalia Class Mammalia Family Bovidae | Phylum Chordata Order Artiodactyla Subfamily Bovinae | |
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Similar Sanga cattle, N'Dama, Dwarf Lulu, Oxen, Indian aurochs | ||
Taurine cattle (Bos taurus taurus), also called European cattle, are a subspecies of domesticated cattle originating in the Near East. Both taurine cattle and indicine cattle (zebus) are descended from the aurochs. Taurine cattle were originally considered a distinct species, but are now typically grouped with zebus and aurochs into one species, Bos taurus. Most modern breeds of cattle are taurine cattle.
Genetic research suggests the entire modern stock of taurine cattle may have arisen from as few as 80 aurochs tamed in the upper reaches of Mesopotamia about 10,500 years ago near the villages of Çayönü in southeastern Turkey and Dja'de el Mughara in northern Iraq.
The genome sequence of the Hereford breed of taurine cattle was published by the Bovine Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium in 2009.