Ancient cattle genomics, origins, and rapid turnover in the Fertile Crescent

Authors: Marta Pereira Verdugo, Victoria E. Mullin, Amelie Scheu, Valeria Mattiangeli, Kevin G. Daly, Pierpaolo Maisano Delser, Andrew J. Hare, Joachim Bürger, Matthew J. Collins, Ron Kehati, Paula Hesse, Deirdre N. Fulton, Eberhard Sauer, Azadeh Fatemeh Mohaseb, Hossein Davoudi, Roya Khazaeli, Johanna Lhuillier, Claude Rapin, Saeed Ebrahimi, M. M. Khasanov, S. M. Farhad Vahidi, David E. MacHugh, O. Ertugrul, Chaido Koukouli-Chrysanthaki, Αδαμάντιος Σαμψών, G. Kazantzis, Ioannis Kontopoulos, Jelena Bulatović, Ivana Stojanović, Abdesalam Mikdad, Norbert Benecke, Jörg Linstädter, Mikhail Sablin, Robin Bendrey, Lionel Gourichon, Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Marjan Mashkour, David Orton, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Matthew D. Teasdale, Daniel G. Bradley - Science 2019 cited by 238

from the Indus Valley. This process was likely stimulated at the onset of the current geological age, ~4.2 thousand years ago, by a widespread multicentury drought. In contrast to genome-wide admixture, mitochondrial DNA stasis supports that this introgression was male-driven, suggesting that selection of arid-adapted zebu bulls enhanced herd survival. This human-mediated migration of zebu-derived genetics has continued through millennia, altering tropical herding on each continent.