EUROPEAN cows are aliens, according to genetic evidence revealed in
Nature this week (vol 410, p 1088).
Daniel Bradley of Trinity College, Dublin, and colleagues looked at DNA from
cattle living today in Europe, Africa, and the Near East, along with scraps of
DNA from the fossils of four ancient British aurochs (Bos primigenius).
The aurouchs are a primitive, ox-like species that lived throughout Europe
thousands of years ago and became extinct in the 1600s. They have long been
considered the grandfather of the modern cow.
Bradley and his team found that the cattle living in Europe today…
