Skeletal material of aurochs cows is much rarer on display than that of the bulls, probably because they are "less impressive". I assume it is unlikely that less female skeletons have been found, most of them are probably in collections.
Due to copyright issues I cannot post the photos of the skeleton that I have, but my skeletal reconstruction down below was done by tracking out a photo of the skeleton and therefore should give an accurate impression.
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| Skeleton, muscle reconstruction and life reconstruction of the Sassenberg cow specimen © All rights reserved, please do not use without permission. |
The skeleton shows that cows had a shorter trunk than bull skeletons, which is congruent with the description of live aurochs in Anton Schneeberger's letter to Gesner (1602), who wrote that cows are shorter than the bulls. It also shows that also the cows had humps in the shoulder region (not only the bulls), indicated by the elongated processus spinosi in the shoulder region. Humps in cows is rare in domestic cattle, it is found in draft breeds like Sayaguesa or Maronesa, but to the largest extent in Lidia. My life reconstruction bears some resemblance to what a cross of Lidia, Maronesa and Sayaguesa would look like, what fits my proposal of a breeding project with those three breeds.
Here a Sayaguesa cow for comparison (the cow Dona-Urraca from the Lippeaue):
The reconstruction above shows the cow in its summer coat, but I also did one of the individual in a longer coat during fall:
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| The Sassenberg cow with a shagger coat during fall. Please do not use without permission. |
It is not known how long the winter coat of the aurochs was. Schneeberger wrote that the aurochs was covered with longer hair than domestic cattle. Whether this was generally the case, or referred to the coat during winter and fall, is unknown.
You know, I've seen many cattle on your blog with one or more perfectly aurochs-like characteristics: horns, head, colour, size. But the one trait I've rarely seen is correct trunk - leg proportions. As in, very closely approaching those of the Sassenberg cow.
ReplyDeleteThe only ones I can remember that seemed perfect are the East-Asian and Turano-Mongolian breeds you talked about in 2017. But those cattle are too small. Just like Lidia, which can have great, athletic trunks but their legs are still too short most of the time.
Do you think there's a solution to this problem?
Do you have any ideas or strategies that breeding programmes could use to achieve truly aurochs-like trunk proportions?
Do you think the breeds currently being used in breeding-back projects even have the genetic potential to achieve this goal?
What are some of your all time favourite animals in terms of trunk length?
I haven't found any specific posts on this topic on your blog, but I'd love to read your take on this!
You are right, correct leg-trunk proportions are a rare sight in primitive cows. While the correct leg-trunk ratio for bulls is 1:1, and a number of primitive bulls - even in some Heck cattle - do show this ratio, the trunk of most primitive cows is too long as the trunk in aurochs cows is actually shorter than the withers height, as we see in the Sassenberg cow. You are right that some of the turano-mongolian cows are better in this respect than most primitive cows from Europe.
DeleteI don't know if breeding can fix that problem. Perhaps only natural selection can produce cows with an aurochs-like leg to trunk ratio in the future.