Extinct bovine species discovered in Siberia reveals lost relative of yaks

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Add as preferred source Many bone fragments non morphologically diagnostic such as the ones used in the study. Credit: Maxim Kozlikin DNA analyses of ancient remains have revealed a previously unknown extinct bovine species that inhabited southern Siberia during and even before the last ice age. The extinct species was related to modern yaks but followed a separate evolutionary path for hundreds of thousands of years. The findings are published in Current Biology .

"This is a remarkable discovery of a large extinct species based on small nondiagnostic bones," says Love Dalén, senior author and professor of evolutionary genomics at the Center for Paleogenetics, a collaboration between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.