Cattle were originally identified as three separate species: Bos taurus, the European or "taurine" cattle (including similar types from Africa and Asia); Bos indicus, the zebu; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle. Now, these have been reclassified as one species, with Bos taurus primigenius and Bos taurus indicus. Read more ...

Militocodon lydae, a mammal that looked like a chinchilla but is more closely related cows, roamed what is now Colorado after the nonavian dinosaurs went extinct.   Live Science - May 9, 2024

It was around the size of a chinchilla and weighed up to 1 pound (455 grams), yet it was part of a group that likely gave rise to modern hoofed mammals, such as cows, deer and pigs. M. lydae helps researchers understand how mammals evolved into different forms after nonavian dinosaurs disappeared during the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event 66 million years ago.

Fossils of hideous bovine-like animal that predated the dinosaurs is discovered   Daily Mail- June 25, 2013
A cow-like reptile that may have been one of nature's ugliest beasts roamed an isolated desert before the age of the dinosaurs. The creature's genus name - bunostegos - means 'knobby roof' and gives a clue to its appearance. About the size of a domestic cow, the plant-eater had bulbous tumor-like growths sprouting from its head and bony armor down its back.Fossils from bunostegos dating back around 260 million years to the Permian era were found in what is now northern Niger in Africa.

Cow comes in from the cold BBC - October 6, 2002
The neck bone of a 170,000-year-old giant cow found. The three-metre-long beast is considered to be the ancestor of many modern cattle. It became extinct across Europe within the last few thousand years.