Emma Marris article, "The Mysterious origin of European bison revealed using DNA and cave art", was based on an study by an international group of scientists lead by Julien Soubrier, Graham Gower, University of Adelaide in Austria and by Pavel Kosintsev.

"Scientists have proved by DNA that the European bison could be a result of hybridization between two ancient, now extinct, species, between the now extinct steppe bison or bison priscus and the aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle", she writes.

Thanks to Erika Rosengren Historical museum, Lund University, who have helped me with the facts in the article. Read more about the Scandinavian fauna after the ice age in (Visentmöten).

For a long time the evolutionary origin of the European bison, or wisent, has remained unresolved. In numerous studies, based on single genes or limited parts of the genome, the species has inconsistently shown to be closely related to members of either the Bos or the Bison genus.

Last year several independent studies on the evolutionary origin of European bison were published. Contrary to previous studies published in the last two decades these were based on large portions of DNA from modern and ancient wisent. They could confirm the close genetic relationship between European bison and domestic cattle. One of them, a study by Julien Soubrier and his colleagues, went even further and showed that the European bison most likely is a hybrid of two extinct species, the steppe bison (Bison priscus) and the aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle, in accordance with a hypothesis put forward by Edward Verkaar and his colleagues already in 2004.

Throughout Eurasia a large amount of fossils of bovines have been found. However, it is generally difficult to distinguish the bones of different bovines and wisent history has therefore remained largely unknown. To make matters worse it is believed that the wisent and the steppe bison inhabited similar ecological niches. In order to pinpoint the time when the wisent succeeded the steppe bison the team of scientists in the recent study by Soubrier et al. complemented population genetic analysis with the study of a novel source of information: cave art.

In an interview by Emma Marris (Nature.com/news on October 18th), Gilles Tosello, a cave art expert based in Toulouse, France, explained why; "Cave drawing and rock art around the world are a source of incomparable and precious data because they were drawn by artist-hunters trained to observe living animals for hunting".

The scientists now suspect that the steppe bison was the most prevalent species in Eurasia during warmer periods while the distribution of the more cold-adapted wisent shifted towards the north and also in some places into mountainous regions, only to expand during periods of harsher climate. In the rapidly fluctuating climate during the last ice age it is probable that the two species coexisted in the same open areas during short periods of time.

However, the most sensational result of the study, according to some media, was the supposed proof for a hybrid origin of the European bison. Not all scientists agree, though.

"This study is of course very interesting for some researchers, but it is not a breakthrough", writes Urszula Kifer in an article in Lasow Panstwowych in October 2016. "Among scientists who are working on the biology of European bison does not find this information sensational". she says. In the same article Wanda Olech Piaseka, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) and President of the European Bison Friend Society, comment the study.

"Primarily, aurochs and European bison lived within the same area, which of course gave the possibility of outcrossing between these species", says Wanda Olech. "We know however, since many years, that the European bison is related to domestic cattle, many previous DNA studies proved this".

Professor Olech also think; "The latest research does not allow us to draw conclusions concerning the necessity of changing an approach towards active protection of the European bison. The fact that the ancestor of these animals favoured open terrain in the past does not mean that it is still true,
According to our research, European bison´s feed on open grassland for about one-third of the time, and they spend the rest of the time in forest, which provides essential tranquillity and shelter", she says.

In her article Ursula Kifer further writes that it is wrong, like some newspapers have done, to call the European a "bastard". She ends her article with; "everyone, who is able to imagine aurochs, won´t claim that the European bison should be ashamed of this kind of ancestor!"