Ancient Mongolian aurochs genomes reveal sustained introgression and management in East Asia

Abstract

Societies in East Asia have utilized domesticated cattle for over 5000 years, but the genetic history of cattle in East Asia remains understudied. Genome-wide analyses of 23 ancient Mongolian cattle reveal that East Asian aurochs and ancient East Asian taurine cattle are closely related, but neither are closely related to any modern East Asian breeds. We observe binary variation in aurochs diet throughout the early Neolithic, and genomic evidence shows millennia of sustained male-dominated introgression. We identify a unique connection between ancient Mongolian aurochs and the European Hereford breed. These results point to the likelihood of human management of aurochs in Northeast Asia prior to and during the initial adoption of taurine cattle pastoralism.

A pair of Chinese Shang oracle graphs Niu and Yang for certain livestock originate from the Neolithic Fertile Crescent

“…This discovery along with other related archaeological and textual data reveals the trade networks from ancient Turkey, via Fertile Crescent to Central Asia, even stretched to Altai Mountains (Powell W. et al, 2022). Two trade and exchange routes from Central Asia to the middle Yellow River region are revealed by taurine cattle and sheep dispersal (Cai D. et al, 2014b(Cai D. et al, , 2016(Cai D. et al, , 2018aZhang N. et al, 2023aZhang N. et al, , 2023bBrunson et al, 2023). One route was inside ancient China, via Xinjiang, Gansu Qinghai corridor, another one via Eurasia steppe.…”

A pair of Chinese Shang oracle graphs Niu and Yang for certain livestock originate from a pair of Halaf pottery motifs bucrania and mouflons, which spread across prehistoric Old World.

“…Those scarce mitochondrial Haplogroups of P, R, and Q in modern cattle perhaps resulted from the Sporadic interbreeding between ancient native aurochs and cattle (Bonfiglio et al, 2010;Cai, D. et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2018). In East Mongolian Steppe, close to Northeast China, genomic study indicates there were also gene flow to ancient local cattle from East Asian Bronze Age native aurochs that belong to East Asian particular haplogroup C (Brunson et al, 2023). Therefore, the history and relationship between ancient native aurochs of haplogroup C and local taurine cattle from North and Northeast China needs to be elucidated through genomic analyses.…”

“…Mountains (Powell et al, 2022). Two trade and exchange routes from Central Asia to the middle Yellow River region were revealed by taurine cattle and sheep dispersal (Cai D. et al, 2014b(Cai D. et al, , 2016(Cai D. et al, , 2018aZhang N. et al, 2023aZhang N. et al, , 2023bBrunson et al, 2023). One route was inside ancient China, via Xinjiang, Gansu Qinghai corridor, another one via the Eurasia steppe.…”