Fig. 3. The core successional microbiome persists throughout rumen microbiome development, showing age-dependent shifts.

a (i) Heat map showing core successional microbes (n = 2544) subjected to hierarchical clustering. Diets are indicated in the color-coded bar above. (ii) Graphical illustration explaining the heat map structure. Each row represents a core OTU and each column represents an animal sampled at a specific time. b Early-appearing and persistent core successional microbes. Core successional species persistence (Y-axis) as a function of time of appearance (X-axis). Each dot represents the average persistence (number of days) of all microbes that arrived in the ecosystem on the specified day. Species appearance was measured over a 600-day window from first appearance, and persistence was calculated as the mean of the Δ(t_{first appearance} − t_{last appearance}). Purple dots represent core successional microbes, gray dots represent non-core Microbes. Source data is provided as a Source Data file.