མཚན་བྱང་：Ancient genomes reveal an extinct bovine species from mid-latitude Asia（གནའ་བོའི་འགྱུར་རྫས་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་ཨེ་ཤི་ཡའི་དཀྱིལ་ཐིག་ཁུལ་གྱི་འགགས་པའི་བ་གླང་རིགས་གསར་པ་ཞིག་གསལ་བར་བྱས་པ།）
Title: Ancient genomes reveal an extinct bovine species from mid-latitude Asia
Journal: Current Biology, published online October 5, 2026, open access
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.043
Authors: Jonas Oppenheimer, Alexandre Gilardet (co-first authors) and 10 co-authors; corresponding author Love Dalén (Center for Paleogenetics, Stockholm University + Swedish Museum of Natural History; collaborating institutions: University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Vienna)
论文信息
标题：Ancient genomes reveal an extinct bovine species from mid-latitude Asia（《古代基因组揭示中纬度亚洲一种已灭绝牛科物种》）
期刊：Current Biology，2026年10月5日在线发表，开放获取
DOI：10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.043
作者：Jonas Oppenheimer、Alexandre Gilardet（共同第一作者）等12人，通讯作者 Love Dalén（古遗传学中心，斯德哥尔摩大学＋瑞典自然历史博物馆；合作单位：加州大学圣克鲁兹分校、维也纳大学）
From morphologically unidentifiable bone fragments at Denisova Cave and other sites in southern Siberia, ancient DNA analysis has identified a previously unknown extinct bovine species, provisionally called "yak X".
Earlier work had glimpsed this lineage in mitochondrial DNA; this study is the first to recover 20 nuclear genomes (Middle and Late Pleistocene specimens), spanning more than 200,000 years — an exceptionally long time series for ancient-DNA research.
Yak X began diverging from modern yaks around 400,000 years ago (a date comparable to the brown bear–polar bear split) and became fully separated around 250,000 years ago; the divergence coincided with a strong warm period, and the warming may have caused the population isolation that ultimately led to speciation.
Around the Last Interglacial (~130,000–115,000 years ago), the species underwent a population turnover accompanied by a loss of genetic diversity — possibly a blow dealt to a cold-adapted species by the climate warming of ~120,000 years ago.
The youngest known specimen is around 27,000 years old; when and why the species went extinct afterward remains unknown. Its disappearance may have been a previously unrecognized event in the Late Quaternary megafaunal extinction wave.
In contrast to the Denisovans: despite long-term geographic and temporal co-occurrence with the steppe bison (Bison priscus) and the aurochs (Bos primigenius, the wild ancestor of domestic cattle), negligible evidence of gene flow was detected — unlike the frequent admixture seen among archaic humans.
བེད་སྤྱོད་བྱས་པ་ཚང་མ་"གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ངོས་ནས་ངོས་འཛིན་བྱེད་མི་ཐུབ་པའི་"རུས་དུམ་ཡིན། Love Dalén གྱིས་བཤད་རྒྱུར། "རུས་དུམ་ཆུང་ཆུང་མིག་ལ་མི་འཛིན་པ་ཁ་ཤས་ནས་བ་གླང་ཆེན་པོ་འགགས་པ་ཞིག་རྙེད་པ་ནི་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ་བའི་དོན་ཞིག་ཡིན།" སྔོན་དུ་ཆུང་ངུའི་DNA ཞིབ་འཇུག་ཅིག་གིས་དེ་ནི་སོ་ཝ་བྲག་ཕུག་ཉེ་འཁོར་གྱི་རུས་དུམ་ཁ་ཤས་"ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་ཞིག་འདུག་"ཅེས་བསྟན་མྱོང་ཡོད། ཐེངས་འདིར་མ་ལག་ཆ་ཚང་གིས་གཏན་འཁེལ་བྱས་པ་ཡིན།
How it was found
The team worked entirely with "morphologically non-diagnostic" bone fragments. Love Dalén said: "This is a remarkable discovery of a large extinct species based on small nondiagnostic bones." An earlier study of trace amounts of DNA had already hinted that some fragments from in and around Denisova Cave were "something special"; this study confirms it systematically.
ད་ལྟའི་གནའ་བོའི་གཡག་རྒོད་ནི་བོད་ས་མཐོའི་ས་མཐོའི་ཁུལ་ཁོ་ནར་ཁྱབ་ཡོད། yak X ནི་ཨལ་ཐེ—ས་ཡན་རི་རྒྱུད་དང་ལྷོ་སི་བེ་རི་ཡར་གནས་མྱོང་བ་ཡིན། དེས་གཡག་རིགས་ཀྱི་ས་ཁྱབ་Pleistocene དུས་སྐབས་སུ་ད་ལྟ་ལས་ཆེ་བ་མང་པོ་ཡིན་པ་བསྟན་གྱི་ཡོད། རྗེས་སུ་ས་མཐོར་ཕྱིར་འཐེན་བྱས་པ་ཡིན།
Why it matters
The authors themselves compare the find to the 2010 discovery of the Denisovans from a single finger-bone fossil — the same cave, the same story of "the Altai as an ice-age refugium and biodiversity hotspot."
Modern wild yaks are now restricted to the high elevations of the Tibetan Plateau, whereas yak X lived in the Altai–Sayan Mountains and southern Siberia — showing that the yak family's Pleistocene geographic range was far larger before contracting to the plateau.
Genetic evidence alone is not sufficient to formally name a new species; the team's next step is to compare the genomes morphologically with previously described yak-like fossils from the region to see whether they belong to the same species.
The exact timing and causes of the extinction remain unknown.