What have Cows evolved from?

Question

Basically what is their evolutionary path (assuming that the theory of evolution is correct and that God didn't put us all here) ie we've evolved from monkeys etc, where do cows (or bovines in general) brach off?

can you give your reference so that I can look it up please, thanks.

if we and cows evolved from a common ancestor what was that ancestor?

Answer 1

I don't really understand the question. Branch off from what point? While humans branched off from monkeys we also branched off from apes, from prosimians and from bats. Cattle are no different. But I can tell you where cattle and humans diverged.

Domestic cattle are the descendants of the now extinct Eurasian aurochs.

The aurochs itself shared a very recent common ancestor with SE Asian banteng and Central Asian yak which are the other cattle species.

Those cattle in turn shared a more distant ancestor with bison and buffalo to make up the buffalo group.

Even more distantly the buffalo group shares a common ancestor with the antelope and goats and together the buffalo, goats and antelope make up the Bovid family, which is basically all the true horned animals that don't shed their horns.

The Bovid family shared a common ancestor with the deer, giraffes and okapi and the Bovid/giraffe group in turn shares a common ancestor with the pronghorn mountain goat and a few other horned oddities. That Bovid/giraffe/pronghorn group is what we call the Pecorids, which are all the true horned animals. (Note that some other animals like rhinos have horns but they are not true horns in that tehy are not outgrowths of the skull.)

The horned animals or Pecorids in turn branch off from the hippopotamuses and camels and more distantly from the camels and llamas and still more distaltly form the pigs. That group comprising the pigs, hippos, camels and Pecorids are what we call the Artiodactyla, or even toed hoofed animals.

The Artiodactyls in their turn branched off at about the same time form two other groups: the odd toed hoofed animals (the Perrisodactyls) and, perhaps surprisingly, the whales. These three groups formed the superorder Cetartiodactyla.

The Cetartiodactyla in turn branched from the line leading to the carnivora, ie the dogs, cats, weasels and so forth.

And that Cetartiodactyla/carnivora clade itself split from the lineage leading to the fingered mammals. The fingered mammals being the primates, tree shrews and the bats.

So that is where the common ancestor of humans and cattle fits in. It existed at a point before the differentiation of the hoofed animal/carnivore group and the fingered mammal group.What was that common ancestor? We really can not know at this stage. Probably a fairly nondescript foraging animal with a lifestyle something like a ground squirrel or a raccoon. Almost certainly omnivorous. Almost certainly capable of climbing but primarily a ground dweller.

That animal in its turn gave rise to a lineage that became increasingly specialised as ground dwellers which in turn gave rise to the hoofed animals, whales and carnvivores. Some of the carnivores later reverted to a largely arboreal lifestyle. A second lineage of the common ancestor became increasingly arboreal and adapted to climbing using the fingertips rather than the claws to grip with. That lineage led to the bats and lemurs and ultimately to ourselves.

Answer 2

Well as we all know, the bush evolved into the fly trap plant, then it evolved into the spider. The spider decided 8 legs were too much, so it became a goat. The cow came from the goat.
Don’t get me started on where the turkey came from.

Answer 3

Ruminant Ungulates - animals that "chew the cud", of which the cow is an occasion, developed in the Eocene Epoch (fifty 5-34 million years in the past). Pastoralism - the farming of animals - is assumed to have been developed via people lots later than the growing to be of nutrients plant life, yet nevertheless in the Neolithic era. on the commencing up, it would probably have in contact goats and sheep, somewhat than the bigger ungulates (like oxen, and so on.), however the protecting of farm animals has been around as a results of fact that 6-7000BC in the southern Caucasus and Mesopotamia (ie - the middle East). the unique farm animals might have been in simple terms "wild" aurochs, yet successive breeding as a results of fact that then has produced the various breeds of farm animals stumbled on on the instant.

Answer 4

We and cows evolved from a common ancestor.

Answer 5

Sally Struthers

Answer 6

Cows > Milk

Answer 7

The very same pond scum we all came from just differing cell mutations

Answer 8

They branch off from mammals, just under pigs.

Answer 9

where to you think, huh?

I never assumed that, why there are still apes (monkey rather) in these days!?

Answer 10

dogs and horses. they have four legs and are mammals. this, therefore, must be true. heh heh heh.