WILL AN AUROCHS COME BACK TO POLISH FORESTS?

2010

 

 

http://www.up.poznan.pl/kbib/willanaurochs10.jpg

WILL AN AUROCHS COME BACK TO POLISH FORESTS?

Ed. A.M. Dzieduszycki, R. Słomski, M.S. Ryba. Bibliotheca Thurcoviana, Poznań University of Life Sciences Publisher, Turek, Poznań, 2010

ISBN 978-83-61958-16-1, ISBN 978-83-7160-580-2

 

 

 

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Book provides a brief recapitulation of our knowledge and research connected with the aurochs and its habitat. After nearly four hundred years from the extinction of an aurochs on our earth there is still fresh memory about the animal but the details of it are receding into the background and we are beginning to ascribe mythical attributes to an aurochs. One of the most important achievements is arousing a wide discussion about an aurochs and in this meaning an aurochs has already come back to life. There was attention drawn to the necessity of free-living animal protection and to huge difficulties with exploration of extinct species. From the research into DNA we will find out the closest relatives of an aurochs.                                    

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Contents

 

 

Acknowledgement

5

 

Turek — town in the Mehofferian climate

9

Part 1. The aurochs

 

 

Preface

17

 

Species description

18

 

An aurochs in old cultures

29

 

The history of the species

49

 

The history of an aurochs on the Polish lands

65

 

An aurochs and domestic cattle

71

 

An aurochs, its environment and diet

74

 

The ethical matters of the restoration of an aurochs

92

 

The advantages and threats of the restoration of an aurochs

94

 

Is it possible to bring an aurochs back to Polish lands?

107

Part 2. The application of the molecular biology methods in the research into an aurochs

 

 

The DNA as hereditary material

115

 

The beginning of the research into the ancient DNA

120

 

Examples of molecular research on aDNA

122

 

A Plains Zebra (Quagga) - the first animal in the aDNA research and in the restoration of an extinct species

124

 

The laboratory for the aDNA research

126

 

The most important stages in working with the aDNA

131

 

Restoration of an aurochs by learning about the structure of its DNA

133

 

Preparation of the aurochs’ DNA library

138

 

The genetic code of an aurochs

140

 

The research of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

142

 

The analysis of the mtDNA of an aurochs

143

Literature

152

 

 

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