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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

incisive part. These qualities are easily recognizable in the table of dimensions
above. It is clear enough that the present lower jaw belongs, not to a buffalo,
but to a large taurine animal like the European urus.

The well-preserved basioccipital bone shows equally well a marked difference
between buffalo and taurus (see plate 74, figs. 2–3). In the buffalo it approaches
more the type of Ovis, is rather short, and the tubercula pharyngeæ predominate
vis-à-vis the upper protuberances. In regard to size, the basioccipital of Anau
corresponds very exactly with that of the skulls of Bos primigenius of the British
Museum.

Lastly, the fragment of a horn-core (plate 78, fig. 2) denotes a round-horned
animal and not a bovid with flat horns of quadrangular or triangular cross-section.
This fragment represents the basal part of a left horn-core with some frontal
pieces attached. Its surface is granulous, therefore it seems to have belonged to
an adult individual. The core is at the base filled with some spongy bone sub-
stance, which gives the impression that it must have belonged to a gigantic indi-
vidual with enormous horns, like those found by Abbé David in the Chinese loess
near Suen-hua-fu. This is corroborated by the measurements compared with
those of several other horn-cores of Bos namadicus and Bos primigenius, which
are remarkable for their size.

It is, therefore, proved beyond doubt that a large taurine animal furnished
the bones in question, and in the light of our researches concerning the wild bovine
animals of these regions, it must certainly have been the Bos namadicus Falconer
& Cautley, i. e., the Asiatic urus.

Of the bovine group, there remain to be considered only the Taurina proper
and the Protaurina, as well as the bison and yak. Here, too, the teeth offer an
easy means of discrimination. According to Rütimeyer* (1): "Bison and yak
have become so sharply characterized that their teeth can be distinguished from
those of Taurus, Bubalus, and of the Bibovina (Protaurus mihi) through the
weakest development of the accessory columns."

This difference is more clearly shown on plate 74. It will be seen from fig. 4
that in this specimen of Pœphagus grunniens from Nepal, male, about 6 years
of age, the construction of the teeth is very simple. It is No. 611a; 5ab 28,
No. 152, British Museum.

On the other hand, fig. 5, Bos namadicus (specimen 36672), called by Rütimeyer
Bos palæogaurus (Paleontological Gallery, British Museum); fig. 6, Bos primi-
genius Bojanus, Pleistocene, Grays (Essex) (No. 21296, 21647, Paleont. Gal.,
British Museum); fig. 7, a molar series from Anau; fig. 8, Bos taurus macroceros,
long-horned cattle brought from Nepal by Hodgson, 1848 (?) (British Museum)
(skull, plate 82, fig. 1); fig. 9, Bos frontalis Evans, from Assam (British Museum);
fig. 10, Bubalus occipitalis Falconer (Probubalus triquetricornis Rütimeyer, No.
16173, Paleont. Gal., British Museum) show more and different plications of the
enamel-folds.