I have attempted reconstructing the aurochs by photo manipulation using GIMP on photos of aurochs-like cattle multiple times, but this time I think I might have fabricated the most accurate one I have attempted so far.
I used a photo of Darth Vader III, a Taurus bull that is a son of Londo (F2 Sayaguesa x (Heck x Chianina)) and Laniana (which had a little bit of Lidia in her genealogy), thus is 1/32 Lidia, that I took in the Lippeaue in 2022. I superimposed a photo of the Store-damme aurochs skeleton, which I had previously corrected into an anatomically correct posture on the photo. Then I started to manipulate the proportions and shape of the bull according to the anatomically correctly positioned skeleton. I increased the length of the legs, changed the hump by enlarging it slightly, reduced the length of the dewlap, made the neck slightly longer. For the head, I used a photo of the skull from the Sassenberg bull. I made the snout slightly longer, and the postorbital region of the head. Then I made the bodily morphology more like a wild bovine by reducing the bulk of the waist and belly. All the other aspects of the original bull photo fitted the aurochs skeleton. Honestly, I was surprised that I did not have to change the bull that dramatically. The horns of the original had to be removed with the stamp tool, I replaced it with a horn from the Heck cow Erni of the Steinberg/Wörth lineage that I skewed slightly.
This is the original photo of Darth Vader III:
This is the result:
I am very happy with it. It looks rather plausible and credible for a real (wild) bovine to me, more so than my recent model which is based on the same skeleton and skull: https://breedingback.blogspot.com/2023/04/life-reconstruction-model-of-sassenberg.html
The photo manipulation shows me the deficiencies of the model, my next one is going to be better.
I think that less-derived Lidia, Spanish fighting cattle, are the cattle that come closest to this reconstruction by far. In my opinion, this phenotype is roughly achievable in “breeding-back”, as long as wild yak, Java banteng and Lidia are in the mix and used wisely.
The reconstruction looks emminently possible, particularly for a fully mature animal growing into his full bulk. It also shows breeding back has made some decent headway over the last 10 years.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. This reconstruction gives me none of the whiplash the model did. Looking at it, I can suspend my disbelief perfectly fine and imagine it as a living, breathing animal. Nicely done!
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