India, April 4 -- Descended from Iberian cattle brought by Spanish colonists to the Americas, the Criollo has a myriad of climate-adaptive traits

'Criollo' was a term used frequently in the 'Casta' system of the colonial Hispanic and Lusophone Americas. Derived from Portuguese 'Crioulo', it distinguished people born in the New World from those native to Iberia (Spain and Portugal) who were known as 'Penninsulares'.

But 'Criollo' also extended to livestock (cattle, sheep, horses and goats). Now, Irish scientists have found that Criollo cattle are best suited to surviving and thriving in a warming world, given their tolerance to hot and humid climes, developed over hundreds of years.

Scientists from University College Dublin (UCD) in the...