MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 257 



Nevertheless herds of wild swine have doubtless roamed over 

 parts of Minnesota as in the states farther west. Since the 

 Eocene period America has had a group of swine like animals 

 in general appearance like those of Europe though quite differ- 

 ent in details. The peccary of South America is at the 

 hither end of this line of descent, while at the other stands the 

 genus Eohyus of the Eocene, followed by Helohyus of the middle 

 Eocene, Perchcerus of the lower Miocene, Tinohyus of the upper 

 Miocene, Platygonus, etc. , of the Quarternary. It may perhaps 

 be interesting to notice that, as usual, America has "gotten 

 the start of" the old world and our hogs exhibit a greater 

 degree of specialization than those of Europe and Africa, and 

 the four- toed form has quite gone out of style. 



We have already noticed that the family Tragulidce as re- 

 presented by the tfyomoschus seems to have persisted 

 with little change from the upper Eocene to the present 

 time. Deer and antelope were differentiated in the Miocene. 

 During the Pliocene and Quarternary gigantic deer ranged over 

 Europe and America, whose direct descendants are seen in the 

 elk or more properly Canadian stag and the stag of Europe. 

 The gigantic Irish elk lived until comparatively recent times. 

 In America the Casoryx, characterized by a non-fusion of the 

 metatarsals, existed in the Pliocene. Antelopes ranged over 

 Europe in immense herds in late geologic periods. During the 

 Ice period both America and Europe were over-run by reindeer, 

 moose deer (properly elk) and musk oxen. 



The ancestors of the domestic cattle are found in Pliocene 

 rocks of Asia and Europe, the type being entirely absent from 

 America. 



The European buffalo is apparently earlier than the ox, as 

 indicated by fossil remains. Asia has remained the home of 

 the kine group whence indirectly our domestic ox must, in all 

 probability, be derived from three species living at no very 

 distant date in Europe. The' Bos primogenius is said to have 

 been partially domesticated in . Europe during the middle ages 

 and is described as black with a white stripe above. Lineal 

 descendants of this form are said to still exist in a half wild 

 condition in Scotland. Bos frontosus, an extinct species with a 

 broad concave forehead is said to be the progenitor of the 

 short-horn breeds and Bos brachyceros of the spotless and large- 

 horned breeds. Africa has no endemic species of ox, the 

 probability being that the zebu has been imported thither. 



