MAMMALIA. 



43 



16-19. 



coixesijoiids exactly with the life-histoiv of the antlers in anv Table-case 

 individual modern deer — at first there are no antlers, then 

 single prongs, then increasing complexity until the maximum 

 is reached in full maturity. 



The antelopes, sheep antl oxen, or Bovidse, attain their Pier-cases 

 greatest development at the present day. They are essen- 

 tially an Old World family, and do not appear to have 

 reached America until the close of the l*liocene period. 

 The present distribution of many species, however, is quite 

 limited, compared with their range in the Pleistocene period. 

 The Saiga antelope {Saiga fatarica), now living on the 

 .Siberian steppes, then wandered as far west as England ; 

 and a frontlet from the Thames deposits at Twickenham is 

 exhibited in I'ier-case 1(3. The European l)ison {Bison 

 honasus), now surviving in Lithuania and the Caucasus, ranged 

 throughout the greater part of Europe and even to the Arctic 

 regions. Fine frontlets from England and various Arctic 

 localities are arranged in Pier-case 16. The American bison 

 and allied species flourished in the New World. The musk-ox 

 {Ovibos moscha(us), now confined to the extreme north, came 

 south with the reindeer as far as the Pyrenees ; and there are 

 typical remains from the Thames and Severn Valleys in Pier- 

 case 1(). The urus {Bos primigenivs), which was seen by 

 CiBsar in historic times in the Hercynian forest, was common 



Pier-case 

 16. 



Fig. 34. — Skull of the Urus [Bos prim'uii'nius), fi-oin the British Pleisto- 

 cene; one-fourteenth nat. size. (Pier-case 18.) 



in the Pleistocene i)eriod throughout Europe (Fig. 34). Sir 

 Antonio Pradv's collection of the remains of this ox from 



