A team working in a Siberian cave recently discovered a previously unknown bovine species that dates back to the last ice age and beyond. This species is related to modern yaks and likely went extinct around 27,000 years ago. A study published today in the journal Current Biology details the findings.
The bones allowed an international team of researchers to generate 20 ancient genomes spanning 200,000 years. They then compared these genomes with other bovines and found that they belong to a previously unknown species. They estimate that this species began diverging from modern yaks roughly 400,000 years ago and then became fully separated around 250,000 years ago.
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