6o Oxen 



2. The Siwalik Bison — Bos sivalensis [Extinct) 



Bos sha/t'//s/s. Falconer, Pti/^ronto/ogicd/ Memoirs, vol. i. p. 555 (1868) ; 

 Lvciekker, Horns and Hoofs, p. ;^o (1893). 



Bison sivalensis, Lydekker, Pal. Ind. {Mem. Geo/. Siirv. Ind.), ser. 10, 

 vol. i. p. 122, pis. xv. and xvii. (1878); Riitimeyer, yl/>/i. sc/iiceiz. pal. 

 Ges. vol. V. p. 185 (1878); Martin, Samnil. Geol. Mas. Leiden, vol. iv. 

 p. 6. (1887). 



Characters. — This extinct bison was originally named bv Falconer on 

 the evidence of a skull from the Siwaliks now lost, ami the tvpe must 

 consequently be the upper portion of a skull with parts of the horn-cores 

 described by myself in 1878. That specimen was obtained from the 

 upper Siwalik deposits, which should probably be referred to the newer 

 Pliocene period. Although at first regarded as intermediate between the 

 yak antl the bisons, it undoubtedly belongs to a true bison, exhibiting all 

 the characters mentioned under the head ot the sub-genus as diNtinctive ot 

 the bisons proper from the yak. In the flatness ot the torehead and 

 tubular form of the orbits this skull resembles the European as distinct 

 from the American species ; and the Siwalik bison, as the oldest known 

 in the Old World, may be regarded as the ancestral form of the group. 



At the time when the Siwalik bison tlouri>hed, the outer ranges of the 

 Himalaya (in which its remaiuN are found) were non-existent, while the 

 central ranges ami the plateau of Tibet were almost certainly much lower 

 than at present. Consequently it is quite possible that animals like bison 

 may have been able to range tVom the Punjab into Central Asia. 



Whether the yak is also a more specialised otf-shoot from the same 

 primitive stock may well be left an open question. But seeing that it is 

 well-nigh certain that this animal lias been derived trcMii a bovine living 

 at lower elevations, and that it could scarcely have been a descendant of 



