What large wild cattle ancestor went extinct in 1627?

The large wild cattle ancestor that went extinct in 1627 was the aurochs.

The aurochs (Bos primigenius) was a wild bovine that lived across Europe, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and parts of Asia. It was taller and more heavily built than most modern cattle, with long, powerful horns. Ancient people hunted aurochs, while later communities also captured and domesticated some of them.

Modern domestic cattle descended from different aurochs populations. This makes the aurochs an ancestor of cattle, not simply an unusually large breed of cow. Its name also appears in historical forms such as urus and ure, which can cause confusion in older texts.

The final known population survived in Poland’s Jaktorów Forest. Numbers fell sharply because of hunting, habitat loss, and competition with domesticated animals. The last recorded aurochs, a cow, died there in 1627 from natural causes. Some modern cattle-breeding projects attempt to recreate aurochs-like traits, but these animals are not genetically identical to the extinct species.