The Mothers of all Cows ~ Origin of Modern Cows Traced to Single Herd

via wired.com

A genetic study of cattle has claimed that all modern domesticated bovines are descended from a single herd of wild ox had been domesticated from a now-extinct species of wild ox, known as aurochs, which roamed across Europe and Asia 10,500 years ago. Those cattle were then bred into the 1.4 billion cattle estimated by the UN to exist in mid-2011.

"Where Our Food Comes From"

"Gary Paul Nabhan weaves together Vavilov's extraordinary story with his own expeditions to Earth's richest agricultural landscapes and the cultures that tend them. Retracing Vavilov's  path from Mexico and the Colombian Amazon to the glaciers of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, he draws a vibrant portrait of changes that have occurred since Vavilov's time and why they matter."
via youtube.com

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов) (November 25 [O.S. November 13] 1887 – January 26, 1943) was a prominent Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to the study and improvement of wheat, corn, and other cereal crops that sustain the global population.