Fossils of an individual of B. acutifrons were found in middle Pleistocene-aged strata of Siwalik Hills of Kashmir, in either modern Pakistan or India, in the 19th century.

[1][4] Following the 2009 discovery of the remains an African species of Bos in Eritrea, B. buiaensis, which also immigrated into the Levant, this theory gained currency based on morphological and chronological grounds.

Duvernois in 1990 proposed it evolved directly from an Indian species of Leptobos, perhaps L. falconeri, along with the Pleistocene genera or subgenera Bison and Bibos.

[1] Martínez-Navarro et al. consider that the Bos genus most likely arose in Africa descended from Pelorovis oldowayensis, described by Hans Reck in 1928 from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, which was itself derived from the older species P. turkanensis described from northern Kenya.

[6] Tong et al. in 2018 also call the Martínez-Navarro hypothesis into question, pointing out that there are good morphological ground to separate the genus Pelorovis from Bos, which would invalidate the theory.