Bovinae

Evolution and fossil history

Bovinae represents an early divergence within the family Bovidae, having separated from the Aegodontia lineage approximately 25 million years ago.^[1] Fossil evidence indicates that the earliest ancestral precursors date to the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, between 55 and 25 million years ago, represented by Archeomeryx, a small hornless artiodactyl standing roughly 50 cm tall. During the Miocene epoch, between 25 and 5 million years ago, species of the genus Eotragus appeared, with small, backward-curved horns. The oldest fossil remains firmly identified as early bovines date to 18.5 million years ago in Asia, while other accounts trace definitive members of the modern subfamily to the Pliocene epoch, between 5 and 2 million years ago, notably with the genus Parabos.^[2][3]

Bovines originated in Asia and subsequently dispersed across Europe, Africa, and North America, attaining their greatest taxonomic diversity during the Pleistocene epoch.^[4] Probably because of colder Eurasian climatic conditions, modern bovines reached a greater body mass than any other bovid subfamily.^[3] In Europe, ancestral bovines diverged into two principal forms: the aurochs lineage, which inhabited open deciduous woodlands and browsed tree leaves and shoots, and the wisent lineage, which frequented forest edges and open landscapes while incorporating substantial amounts of grass into its diet.^[5][6] Both forms coexisted with evolving human ancestors, serving as the primary large game hunted by Neanderthals between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago.^[5][6]

Anatomy and morphology

Bovines encompass the largest and heaviest of all ruminants.^[7] Body size varies across the subfamily, ranging from the four-horned antelope, which weighs between 15 and 25 kg, to the wild Asian water buffalo, which can reach 1,200 kg.^[8] The gaur is the heaviest extant bovine, reaching a shoulder height of up to 2.2 meters (220 cm).^[9] Across the subfamily, head-and-body lengths range from 160 to 350 cm, tail lengths from 18 to 110 cm, shoulder heights from 60 to 280 cm, and body weights from 150 to 1,350 kg. The African buffalo attains body lengths of up to 340 cm. Typical bovine body plans feature a barrel-shaped torso, a low and broad skull, relatively short and sturdy limbs, and a long tail terminating in a hair tuft.^[10] Sexual dimorphism is pronounced throughout the group, with adult bulls significantly larger than cows and frequently weighing nearly twice as much.^[2][3]

Horns and cranial features

Bovine horns are permanent, unbranched, hollow structures composed of a keratinous sheath growing over a vascularized bony core arising from the lateral margins of the frontal bones.^[10][11] The horn sheath continues growing throughout the animal's life from the base near the skull, where the keratin tissue is softest and newest. Environmental variations produce visible annual growth rings on the horn sheath, as thicker keratin layers form during favorable summer periods while thinner layers develop during winter. Horns remain alive and relatively brittle, and their tips can break off, causing the animal trauma. Individual horn lengths can reach up to 150 cm.

Horn configuration varies markedly among tribes. Members of the tribe Bovini possess outward-pointing, smooth or longitudinally ridged, crescent-shaped horns present in both sexes, although female horns are typically shorter, thinner, and lighter than those of males.^[2] In African buffaloes, the Cape buffalo has very large horns that meet on the forehead, whereas the forest buffalo has slender horns separated on the forehead by a strip of hairy skin. Members of the tribe Tragelaphini exhibit spiral-twisted horns that follow the cranial contours, extending backward in lengths ranging from 20 cm in the bushbuck to nearly one meter in the greater kudu and giant eland.^[11] With the exception of elands and a few other species, female Tragelaphini are typically hornless.^[11] Tetracerus is unique among all bovids in bearing four distinct horns in males.^[12]

Dentition and feeding apparatus

The typical dental formula of Bovinae comprises zero incisors, zero canines, three premolars, and three molars in the upper jaw, paired with three incisors, one canine, three premolars, and three molars in the lower jaw on each side, yielding a total of 32 teeth, although total counts of 30 or 33 teeth have also been documented.^[12] The front of the upper jaw has no teeth; in place of incisors it has a keratinized dental pad, against which grass is pressed. The lower canine teeth are incisiform, positioned immediately alongside the three pairs of lower incisors to create a functional cutting row of eight anterior teeth. The lower teeth are surrounded by elastic tissue and can move during chewing, which keeps their cutting edges at right angles to the length of the grass. The cheek teeth are strongly hypsodont, equipped with complex internal enamel folds suited for grinding fibrous plant matter.^[10]

Bovines have lips that are not very mobile and so rely more on a long, strong, rough-surfaced tongue to gather forage. The tongue wraps around a tuft of grass and pulls it into the mouth, where the jaws close and a sideways jerk of the head tears the grass off. Horizontal and vertical movements of the jaws let the animal chew its food with a circular motion, breaking it down mechanically.

Locomotion, limbs, and glands

The spinous processes of the vertebrae are long and serve as attachment points for the heavy muscle ridge over the shoulders. The limbs are adapted for cursorial movement and supporting heavy body mass. The original five digits are modified: the third and fourth digits bear the animal's weight, supported by fused metapodials forming the cannon bone, while the phalanges remain separate and terminate in paired cloven hooves.^[12] The first digit is completely absent, the second digit survives as vestigial dewclaws on the hind limbs, and the fifth digit persists only as small splint bones on the forelimbs. Bovines travel primarily by a measured walk, but can transition to a trot or a stiff gallop, achieving speeds of up to 35 km/h over short distances. All bovine species are capable swimmers.

Unlike many other subfamilies within Bovidae, bovines lack preorbital scent glands below the eyes, interdigital glands between the front toes, and inguinal glands in the groin.^[2][3][10] Instead, all members possess characteristic cutaneous scent glands located between the dewclaws of the hind legs.^[2][3] The bovine muzzle is broad, moist, and hairless, with widely separated nostrils and an undivided upper lip. Bovines possess keen olfactory and auditory capabilities, using their sense of smell for orientation and social communication within herds.^[5] While they have good color perception, their distant vision is limited, and they recognize stationary objects only at close range.^[5]

Digestive physiology

Bovines are specialized herbivores whose diet consists predominantly of coarse grasses, foliage, and shoots containing high concentrations of cellulose and low nutrient densities.^[5] To sustain itself, a large bovine consumes between 50 and 100 kg of fresh forage and up to 100 liters of water daily. The digestive system features a compound four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum, with a total volume ranging from 200 to 250 liters in adult cattle, of which the rumen accounts for roughly 80 percent.^[5] Swallowed plant material passes down the esophagus into the rumen, where symbiotic bacteria and microorganisms ferment structural cellulose into volatile fatty acids and microbial protein.^[5]

From the rumen, the food passes into the reticulum.^[5] Approximately two hours after feeding, during periods of rest or night shelter, antiperistaltic contractions of the reticulum and esophagus regurgitate the bolus back into the mouth for rumination.^[5][13] The animal rechews each bolus with approximately 50 masticatory strokes, mixing it with large volumes of alkaline saliva before reswallowing.^[5][13] Bovines perform approximately 40,000 chewing movements per day, dividing rumination into 6 to 8 daily sessions that each last between 40 and 60 minutes.^[5][13] The finely ground material settles by density in the rumen and moves into the omasum, where water and minerals are absorbed.^[5] Digesta then enters the abomasum, where gastric acids begin enzymatic digestion, partially converting cellulose breakdown products into sugars.^[5] The abomasum discharges into an intestinal tract roughly 50 meters long, where nutrients enter the bloodstream, while final cellulose breakdown finishes in the cecum.

Behaviour and ecology

Bovines occupy a wide range of habitats across Eurasia, Africa, and North America, spanning tropical rainforests, riparian reedbeds, wooded hills, savannas, open steppes, and alpine plateaus.^[11][14] Besides plains, bovines also live in mountains, up to 6,000 meters in the Himalayas where the yak lives. While members of the tribe Bovini typically inhabit open grasslands, river valleys, or dense moist forests close to surface water, species in the tribe Tragelaphini exploit forest-savanna transition zones, dry acacia thickets, and wetland edges across sub-Saharan Africa.^[11][14] The bushbuck is the most widespread wild bovine in Africa, present in virtually every habitat south of the Sahara except hyper-arid deserts.^[11]

In large bovine populations, social organization consistently divides into three distinct structural units: nursery herds composed of adult cows and their dependent offspring, bachelor herds of young and non-breeding bulls, and solitary mature bulls.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} Females maintain strong social attachments with their young and female subadults.^[20][21] Young bulls typically leave maternal herds around three years of age. Herd size varies significantly by taxon: gaur, banteng, and forest buffalo form cohesive groups of 10 to 12 animals; American and European bison live in herds of 20 to 60 individuals; and African Cape buffalo on open savannas aggregate into herds of several hundred to over 1,000 animals. In contrast, anoas, the tamaraw, and the saola lead solitary or paired lives.

Bovines have little facial expression, so they communicate by other means: holding and turning the head, facing an opponent head-on or broadside, stretching or lowering the neck, pawing the ground with a leg or horn, and snorting. Dominance rank within herds is visually evident from the carriage of the head and neck. During the breeding season, mature bulls compete vigorously for dominance, and the highest-ranking bull attempts to maintain control over a harem of receptive cows, though subordinate bulls also mate when herds are large.^[11]

Bovines readily take mud baths, and wallowing helps regulate body temperature. The best-known wallower is the domestic water buffalo, whose skin has fewer sweat glands per unit area than that of related species, so sweating does little to cool it. Mud cools the body more effectively than clean water. Where large water bodies are unavailable, buffalo churn muddy puddles to create wallows.

Females usually give birth to a single calf, which can run almost immediately after birth. Gestation is reported as lasting 6 to 9 months in all three tribes, in proportion to the species' size, while other accounts give 9 to 11 months. Lifespan varies mostly with body size and averages 10 to 20 years.

Taxonomy and systematics

The subfamily Bovinae was established by John Edward Gray in 1821.^[22][23] Under an older classification, Bovinae held only four genera, Bubalus (Asian buffaloes), Syncerus (African buffalo), Bison and Bos (true cattle), while spiral-horned antelopes were placed in a separate subfamily, Tragelaphinae.^[5][24][25] Modern phylogenetic analyses have integrated spiral-horned antelopes into Bovinae, organizing the subfamily into three living tribes: Boselaphini, Bovini, and Tragelaphini (sometimes termed Strepsicerotini).^[23][26][27] Boselaphini and Tragelaphini are together called forest bucks (Waldböcke), a grouping that is paraphyletic because Boselaphini is probably the sister taxon of all other Bovinae.^[23] Cladistic analyses by Alexandre Hassanin and colleagues in 2018, as well as work by Faysal Bibi in 2013 and Zurano et al. in 2019, corroborate the basal position of Boselaphini, with Bovini and Tragelaphini forming sister clades.^[26][28][29]

Tribe Boselaphini

The tribe Boselaphini represents the most primitive living clade of Bovinae, retaining anatomical and behavioral characteristics closest to ancestral Miocene forms.^[11] Females of this tribe lack horns, and the animals generally have more gracile builds than members of Bovini.^[11] Only two species survive, the four-horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis) and the nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus); they live in the forests of India and generally avoid open ground. Extinct fossil genera assigned to the tribe include Duboisia, known from the Pleistocene of Java, as well as Tragoportax and Miotragocerus.^[30]

Tribe Bovini

Tribe Bovini encompasses true cattle, buffaloes, and bisons. The tribe is divided into three subtribes: Bubalina, Pseudorygina, and Bovina.^[30][31] Subtribe Bubalina contains the Asian buffalo genus Bubalus and the African buffalo genus Syncerus.^[30] Bubalus includes the wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee), the domesticated water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), the lowland anoa (Bubalus depressicornis), the mountain anoa (Bubalus quarlesi), the tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) of Mindoro Island, and the extinct Cebu tamaraw (Bubalus cebuensis).^[5][30] Syncerus comprises the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), which includes recognized subspecies such as the Cape buffalo (S. c. caffer), forest buffalo (S. c. nanus), Sudan buffalo (S. c. brachyceros), and Nile buffalo (S. c. aequinoctialis), as well as the extinct giant buffalo Syncerus antiquus.^[5][23][30]

Subtribe Pseudorygina contains a single extant species, the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), discovered in 1992 in the Annamite Range along the border of Vietnam and Laos.^[6] Subtribe Bovina contains the true cattle (genus Bos) and bisons (genus Bison).^[5][30] Genus Bos includes the extinct wild aurochs (Bos primigenius), taurine cattle (Bos taurus), zebu cattle (Bos indicus), the gaur (Bos gaurus), the domesticated gayal (Bos frontalis), the banteng (Bos javanicus), the domestic Bali cattle (Bos domesticus), the wild yak (Bos mutus), the domestic yak (Bos grunniens), and the kouprey (Bos sauveli).^[5][23][30] Genus Bison contains the American bison (Bison bison) and European bison or wisent (Bison bonasus), along with extinct Pleistocene forms including the steppe wisent (Bison priscus), ancient bison (Bison antiquus), and long-horned bison (Bison latifrons).^[5][30] Multiple genetic and cladistic studies place Bison within the Bos radiation, leading several taxonomists to subsume Bison into Bos.^[23][32]

Tribe Tragelaphini

Tribe Tragelaphini comprises the spiral-horned antelopes, native exclusively to sub-Saharan Africa.^[11] These animals are characterized by slender limbs, deep and narrow chests, elongated necks, and distinct white markings on the face, neck, and lower legs, frequently accented by vertical white flank stripes that are most prominent in the bongo.^[11] The genus Tragelaphus contains the greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), lesser kudu (Tragelaphus imberbis), bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), harnessed bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus), mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni), lowland nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekeii), and bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus).^[23][30] The genus Taurotragus includes the common eland (Taurotragus oryx) and giant eland (Taurotragus derbianus).^[30] Several phylogenetic treatments divide Tragelaphus into distinct genera, separating the lesser kudu into Ammelaphus, the lowland nyala into Nyala, and the greater kudu into Strepsiceros.^[26][32]

Extinct taxa and taxonomic disputes

Several extinct fossil lineages are recognized within Bovinae, including the fossil tribe Udabnocerini Burchak-Abromovich & Gabashvili, 1968, and the fossil genus Gona Deraniyagala, 1958 (represented by Gona sinhaleya).^[33][34] Extinct Bovini genera include Pelorovis, a giant buffalo of the Pleistocene, as well as Parabos, Alephis, Leptobos, Hemibos, Proamphibos, and Simatherium.

In 1994, a new genus and species was proposed under the name Pseudonovibos spiralis (the kting voar or snake-eating cow), described from unusual twisted horns found in Indochina.^[35] The existence of the species and genus has not been sufficiently proven: it is known only from unusual horns, which DNA analyses indicate were made by modifying the horns of domestic cattle (Bos taurus).^[36]

Domestication and human use

Bovines were domesticated in the Neolithic, about 10,000 years ago. A genetic study conducted by researchers from the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, the University of Mainz, and University College London analyzed ancient bovine skeletal remains excavated in Iran, concluding that modern taurine domestic cattle descend from a single founding herd of approximately 80 individual aurochs domesticated around 10,500 years ago.^[37] The aurochs was probably domesticated independently in at least two places, the Near East and India, with the first reliable evidence dating to around 6000 BCE or possibly earlier, so European cattle are not direct relatives of the Asian zebu. Water buffaloes were domesticated in the Far East around 4000 BCE, and their domestic forms include the river buffalo and the swamp buffalo. Yaks were domesticated on the Tibetan Plateau. The domestic yak was bred from the wild yak, Bali cattle from the banteng, and the gayal from the gaur.^[23]

Cattle are among the most important domestic animals of humankind, and their world population is about 1.5 billion head, including 1.4 billion taurine cattle and 150 million zebu. In many countries bovine milk and meat are used as human food, and milk is also a source of butter; cattle are kept as livestock almost everywhere except in parts of India and Nepal, where most Hindus consider them sacred. Bovines are used as draft animals and as riding animals. Bovine leather is durable and flexible and is used to make goods including clothing and bags, and bovine horn is also used. Bovine dung, which is moist and rich in undigested microbial matter, is widely used as a fertilizer in traditional agriculture and serves as a fuel in some countries. Small breeds of domestic bovine, such as the Miniature Zebu, are kept as pets.

Domestic cattle can be crossbred with the gaur, the banteng and the yak and their domestic forms, and in the first generation also with the American bison. Attempts were made to domesticate the American bison, but they were abandoned because domestic cattle were better in every respect. The African buffalo was never domesticated because it is dangerous, unsociable and unreliable; in Africa, herds of cattle are kept instead, though only where tsetse flies allow it. Among the spiral-horned antelopes, only the common eland was the subject of domestication attempts, mainly at Askania Nova in Ukraine, where people tried to tame it and use it for milk; the effort stopped because domestic cattle proved better.

Feral populations of domestic bovines have become established in several regions. On Amsterdam Island, an isolated 55-square-kilometer volcanic island in the southern Indian Ocean (37°40' S, 77°35' E), cattle introduced in 1870 established a wild population of approximately 1,600 individuals by 1990.^[38] In this isolated population, bulls associate primarily in male bachelor groups outside the mating season and exhibit greater spatial movement across the landscape than females.^[38] In northern Australia several thousand feral domestic buffaloes live, descended from animals left behind when military settlements there were evacuated in the 19th century. As a non-native species they damage the local ecological communities; they have no natural enemies apart from saltwater crocodiles, which occasionally take a young animal, so hunting them is unrestricted, though eradicating them seems hopeless.

Cultural significance and mythology

Of all the Bovidae, bovines have always been the most significant to humans. As important prey, the aurochs and the European bison already appear in prehistoric cave paintings, and the two species can be clearly told apart in the early paintings. The aurochs was a symbol of masculinity, strength and power, and because it could grow very heavy, killing one was probably a demanding team effort. At Çatalhöyük in Turkey, the earliest town-like settlement found so far, dated to about 8400 BCE, numerous shrines were found, and the bull was the dominant element in each of them. In ancient Egypt the bull was held to be the earthly incarnation of Apis, one of the chief gods, and only one sacred Apis bull lived at a time, while other cattle were a cornerstone of the Egyptian economy; cattle also had an important role in Egyptian mythology through the goddess Hathor.

The bull cult later spread to the rest of Europe. On Crete it appeared most prominently in the figure of the Minotaur, a man with the head of a bull. Before money existed, the value of goods was counted partly in heads of cattle, and among the Romans cattle were likewise a measure of value and a source of food. The cult of Mithras spread most widely among the Romans; in it, Mithras killed the primordial bull and fertilized the Earth with its blood. In keeping with this cult, thousands of bulls were ritually killed during gladiatorial games, and the cult lives on today in the bullfights of Spain and southern France. Among many pastoral peoples in Africa, cattle are still the most important form of wealth. Hindus in India and Nepal consider cattle sacred and do not eat beef.^[2]

In heraldry, the bull is a symbol of the fertility of the land. The heraldic bull and bison are shown in profile, the bull with crescent-shaped horns and the bison with doubly curved horns, often with the head lowered as if to butt, walking, standing or on the hind legs; a bull's head alone is also often shown facing forward, with the tongue out or with a ring through the nostrils. Buffalo horns, often used to decorate heraldic helmet crests, especially German ones, have been wrongly taken by some heralds for hunting horns, and by French heralds even for elephant trunks. A widespread popular misconception asserts that bulls are enraged by the color red, but controlled experimental testing has demonstrated that cattle lack aggressive sensitivity to red pigmentation, reacting instead to the fluttering motion of the matador's cape.^[39]

Conservation status and threats

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies numerous wild bovine species under threatened categories, including 3 critically endangered, 6 endangered, 4 vulnerable, and 3 near threatened species.^[40] The tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis), found only on the Philippine island of Mindoro, has become very rare through deforestation and hunting and is on the brink of extinction. The kouprey (Bos sauveli), discovered only in the 1930s, survived only in Cambodia, where the wars of the 20th century left no resources for protecting nature; the last one was seen in 1988, and the species is probably extinct. The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), discovered only in the 1990s, lives mainly in Vietnam and perhaps in a few small herds in neighbouring Laos, and its future is uncertain. The lowland and mountain anoas of Sulawesi are most threatened by the shrinking of their habitat, while wild water buffaloes (Bubalus arnee) now perhaps survive only in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand, and in most places have interbred with domestic water buffaloes. Wild yaks in remote parts of the Tibetan Plateau are threatened by diseases spread by domestic animals and by interbreeding with domestic yaks.

Some 10,000 four-horned antelopes may remain, but their numbers are falling because of growing demand for meat. The nilgai long fared well because Hindus tolerated it as a close relative of the cow, but habitat loss is now its main threat; it has also been introduced to southern Texas, where a population of just over ten thousand animals gives some security for its survival. Spiral-horned antelopes are mainly threatened by the bushmeat trade, trophy hunting and infectious diseases caught from domestic cattle. The mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni), the rarest spiral-horned antelope, lives only in a small area of Ethiopia; during the armed conflicts there it long seemed to have died out, but its numbers began to rise once the situation settled. The aurochs (Bos primigenius), the wild ancestor of domestic cattle, died out in Poland in 1627, when its last individual died. The European bison (Bison bonasus) became extinct in the wild in 1919, but was saved through captive breeding of zoo individuals and subsequently reintroduced to the wild in the Białowieża Forest on the Polish-Belarusian border, as well as in Latvia.^[41][42] Primitive cattle breeds that resemble the extinct aurochs, such as Hungarian Grey, Scottish Highland, Spanish fighting cattle and Ankole-Watusi, were used to back-breed Heck cattle, a breed that closely resembles depictions of the aurochs.

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