One subspecies, the Putorana snow sheep (Ovis nivicola borealis), lives isolated from the other forms in the Putoran Mountains.

A number of these wild sheep crossed the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia), from Siberia into Alaska, during the Pleistocene epoch (about 750,000 years ago); new and extant lineages were created from this migration, notably the North American Dall sheep (or thin-horn sheep) and the bighorn sheep, the two which O. nivicola is most closely related to.

Currently the mitochondrial genome of Ovis nivicola has been completely mapped out.

[2] A first-draft genome assembly exists for Ovis nivicola.

[3] Media related to Ovis nivicola at Wikimedia Commons