Near-complete bovine skeletons unearthed the Early Pliocene site of Camp dels Ninots in northeastern Spain reveal that the ancestors of today’s buffalo and cattle were already growing to impressive sizes long before humans arrived on the continent.
Paleoartistic reconstruction of the environment in the surrounding of Camp dels Ninots maar lake during the Early Pliocene. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.
“Bovines are major components of many modern ecosystems as well as of human agriculture, particularly species of the tribe Bovini, which includes bison, buffalo, and cattle,” said Dr. Leonardo Sorbelli from the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science and his colleagues.
“But their evolutionary origins and their relationships with the most closely related groups have been unclear given a lack of well-preserved early fossils.”
In the study, the authors examined remains from at least 14 individuals from the site of Camp dels Ninots in Spain.
They identified the specimens as Parabos tigneresi, one five buffalo-like species that inhabited Europe during the Early Pliocene.
The largest of these animals is estimated to have weighed nearly 500 kg, smaller than most living cattle species but larger than any other similar bovid of this time.
These animals therefore represent an early stage of increasing body sizes in the bovine lineage, possibly as an adaptation to the climatic and environmental changes which characterized the European continent during the Pliocene.
Their anatomy suggests that they predominantly inhabited a humid, vegetation-dense environment, matching the researchers’ understanding of the water-rich environment that existed at the Camp de Ninots site.
According to the researchers, the Early Pliocene was the beginning of the age of large bovines, but the exact relationships of Parabos remain unclear.
Based on comparisons with other species, they conclude that Parabos either represent the earliest members of the tribe Bovini or the latest members of a related lineage, Tragoportacini, which were ultimately replaced by true buffaloes, cattle and bison.
Future study into the anatomy and ecology of Parabos will help resolve precisely where these animals fit into the story of bovine evolution.
“The bovids from Camp dels Ninots are among the most exquisite fossils from the Pliocene of Europe,” the scientists said.
“The exceptional preservation of these animals has allowed us to better understand their anatomy and, therefore, the ecology of the first large-sized bovids to populate the continent.”
“Working on these fossils has been both challenging and satisfying.”
“The exceptional preservation and abundance of the remains have provided us with a large amount of data, which is unique for such ancient geological periods and opened a new window on our world before the arrival of humans.”
The study was published online in the journal PLoS ONE.
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L. Sorbelli et al. 2026. First of a line or last of a dynasty? Parabos tigneresi and the evolution of Eurasian Bovinae in the Early Pliocene. PLoS One 21 (6): e0340256; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0340256
