| Snow sheep | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Caprinae |
| Tribe: | Caprini |
| Genus: | Ovis |
| Species: | O. nivicola |
| Binomial name | |
| Ovis nivicola Eschscholtz, 1829 | |
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Thesnow sheep (Ovis nivicola), orSiberian bighorn sheep, is aspecies ofsheep from the mountainous areas in the northeast ofSiberia. Onesubspecies, the Putorana snow sheep(Ovis nivicola borealis), lives isolated from the other forms in thePutoran Mountains.
Ovis nivicola appeared about 600,000 years ago. A number of these wild sheep crossed theBering Land Bridge (Beringia), fromSiberia intoAlaska, during thePleistoceneepoch (about 750,000 years ago); new and extant lineages were created from this migration, notably theNorth AmericanDall sheep (or thin-horn sheep) and thebighorn sheep, the two whichO. nivicola is most closely related to.
Currently the mitochondrial genome ofOvis nivicola has been completely mapped out.[2]
A first-draft genome assembly exists forOvis nivicola.[3]
Media related toOvis nivicola at Wikimedia Commons
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