The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 19 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Genetic evidence for Near-Eastern origins of European cattle
Abstract
The limited ranges of the wild progenitors of many of the primary European domestic species point to their origins further east in Anatolia or the fertile crescent. The wild ox (Bos primigenius), however, ranged widely and it is unknown whether it was domesticated within Europe as one feature of a local contribution to the farming economy. Here we examine mitochondrial DNA control-region sequence variation from 392 extant animals sampled from Europe, Africa and the Near East, and compare this with data from four extinct British wild oxen. The ancient sequences cluster tightly in a phylogenetic analysis and are clearly distinct from modern cattle. Network analysis of modern Bos taurus identifies four star-like clusters of haplotypes, with intra-cluster diversities that approximate to that expected from the time depth of domestic history. Notably, one of these clusters predominates in Europe and is one of three encountered at substantial frequency in the Near East. In contrast, African diversity is almost exclusively composed of a separate haplogroup, which is encountered only rarely elsewhere. These data provide strong support for a derived Near-Eastern origin for European cattle.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) provides the most robust evidence supporting the Near Eastern origin. The Near East encompasses mtDNA taurine lineages (T, T1, T2, T3, T5), exhibiting high genetic diversity [26,27].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [27]
In the citing paper
“Despite this coexistence, the maternal lineages of European cattle remained overwhelmingly Near Eastern (T3), whereas male-mediated gene flow from local aurochs occurred [27,34].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [27]
In the citing paper
“The T3 haplogroup is mainly distributed in Eurasia; the T2 haplogroup is found in Anatolia and the Middle East; the T1 haplogroup is mainly distributed in Africa; and T4 haplogroup is mainly distributed in East Asia [14,26,27,33].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [27]
In the citing paper
“Moving toward peripheral regions such as Europe and Africa, this genetic diversity gradually decreases: modern European cattle primarily carry the taurine T3 lineage, while the T1 lineage is predominantly distributed in Africa [26,27].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [27]
Citations
Cites
Fu, Y. (1997) · Genetics · doi:10.1093/genetics/147.2.915 · Cited by 7,195
Population growth makes waves in the distribution of pairwise genetic differences.
Rogers, A. R., & Harpending, H. C. (1992) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040727 · Cited by 4,574
Anderson, S., de Bruijn, M. H. L., Coulson, A. R., Eperon, I. C., Sanger, F., & Young, I. G. (1982) · Journal of Molecular Biology · doi:10.1016/0022-2836(82)90137-1 · Cited by 1,472
Mitochondrial portraits of human populations using median networks.
Bandelt, H. J., Forster, P., Sykes, B. C., & Richards, M. B. (1995) · Genetics · doi:10.1093/genetics/141.2.743 · Cited by 1,071
Self-citationThe Origins And Spread Of Agriculture And Pastoralism In Eurasia
Harris, D. R. (2024) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003579861 · Cited by 1,010
Evidence for Two Independent Domestications of Cattle
Loftus, R. T., MacHugh, D. E., Bradley, D. G., Sharp, P. M., & Cunningham, P. (1994) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.91.7.2757 · Cited by 812
Self-citationThe emerging tree of West Eurasian mtDNAs: a synthesis of control-region sequences and RFLPs
Macaulay, V., Richards, M., Hickey, E., Vega, E., Cruciani, F., Guida, V., Scozzari, R., Bonné-Tamir, B., Sykes, B., & Torroni, A. (1999) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1086/302204 · Cited by 602
Self-citationMitochondrial diversity and the origins of African and European cattle
Bradley, D. G., MacHugh, D. E., Cunningham, P., & Loftus, R. T. (1996) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.93.10.5131 · Cited by 584
Self-citationSmith, B. D. (1994) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 552
(1971) · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Cited by 426
Phylogeography of mitochondrial DNA in western Europe
Richards, M. B., Macaulay, V. A., Bandelt, H. J., & Sykes, B. C. (1998) · Annals of Human Genetics · doi:10.1046/j.1469-1809.1998.6230241.x · Cited by 419
Self-citationWhy hunter-gatherer populations do not show signs of Pleistocene demographic expansions
Excoffier, L., & Schneider, S. (1999) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.96.19.10597 · Cited by 295
Nabta Playa and Its Role in Northeastern African Prehistory
Wendorf, F., & Schild, R. (1998) · Journal of Anthropological Archaeology · doi:10.1006/jaar.1998.0319 · Cited by 225
Thornton, P. K. (1996) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/0308-521x(96)81489-2 · Cited by 198
Ancient DNA suggests a recent expansion of European cattle from a diverse wild progenitor species
Bailey, J. F., Richards, M. B., Macaulay, V. A., Colson, I., Tim James, I., Bradley, D. G., Hedges, R. E. M., & Sykes, B. C. (1996) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1996.0214 · Cited by 133
Self-citationMitochondrial sequence variation suggests an African influence in Portuguese cattle
Cymbron, T., Loftus, R. T., Malheiro, I., & Bradley, D. G. (1999) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0678 · Cited by 114
Self-citationMacHugh, D. E., Troy, C. S., McCormick, F., Olsaker, I., Eythórsdóttir, E., & Bradle, D. G. (1999) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.1999.0363 · Cited by 48
Self-citationYang, D. Y. (1998) · doi:10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199804)105:4
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 19 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Bökönyi, S. The History of Domestic Animals in Central and Eastern Europe (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1974).
- Troy, C. S. Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny and Biogeography of Domestic Cattle. Ph.D Thesis, Univ.-Dublin (1998).
- Schneider, S., Roessli, D. & Excoffier, L. ARLEQUIN Ver. 2.0: a Software for Population Genetics Data Analysis (Department of Anthropology, University of Geneva, Switzerland, 1999).
- Macaulay, V. A. CRED: Credible Regions for Coalescence Times. (Univ. Oxford, 1998).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication
Diamond, J. M. (2002) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature01019 · Cited by 1,772
Genetic analyses from ancient DNA
Pääbo, S., Poinar, H., Serre, D., Jaenicke-Després, V., Hebler, J., Rohland, N., Kuch, M., Krause, J., Vigilant, L., & Hofreiter, M. (2004) · Annual Review of Genetics · doi:10.1146/annurev.genet.37.110801.143214 · Cited by 1,333
Worldwide Phylogeography of Wild Boar Reveals Multiple Centers of Pig Domestication
Larson, G., Dobney, K. M., Albarella, U., Fang, M., Matisoo-Smith, E. A., Robins, J. H., Lowden, S., Finlayson, H. A., Brand, T. B., Willerslev, E., et al. (2005) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1106927 · Cited by 912
Rise and Fall of the Beringian Steppe Bison
Shapiro, B., Drummond, A. J., Rambaut, A., Wilson, M. C., Matheus, P. E., Sher, A. V., Pybus, O. G., Gilbert, M. T. P., Barnes, I., Binladen, J., et al. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1101074 · Cited by 675
Genetic diversity in farm animals – a review
Groeneveld, L. F., Lenstra, J. A., Eding, H., Toro, M. Á., Scherf, B., Pilling, D., Negrini, R., Finlay, E. K., Jianlin, H., Groeneveld, E., et al. (2010) · Animal Genetics · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2010.02038.x · Cited by 680
Metadata
- Authors
- Troy, C. S., MacHugh, D. E., Bailey, J. F., Magee, D. A., Loftus, R. T., Cunningham, P., Chamberlain, A. T., Sykes, B. C., & Bradley, D. G.
- Affiliations
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- University College Dublin (IE)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Bradley, Daniel G.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2001-04
- Volume
- 410
- Issue
- 6832
- Pages
- 1088-1091
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1886027281
- Cited by
- 627
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 12.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
- reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
- Keywords
- cattle domestication, cattle, Bos primigenius, European cattle, mitochondrial DNA control region, haplogroups, phylogenetic analysis, network analysis, African cattle, Anatolia, Fertile Crescent
- MeSH terms
- Africa, Animals, Animals, Wild, Cattle, DNA, Mitochondrial, Europe, Haplotypes, Middle East, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, Ruminants, Genetic Variation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
