424 THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



spotted hysena from the striped hyaena {H. striata) of the present day. 

 Although proportionately heavier, the hind limbs may have been shorter 

 than in the spotted hysena, perhaps an adaptation to cave life which the 

 inclement climate made necessary. Thus the Pleistocene species of Euro- 

 pean hyaenas underwent an evolution of their own, and as a result the living 

 African forms differ more from the Pleistocene hysenas than they do from 

 those of the Pliocene. In the caves of southern France a variety {Hycena 

 prisca) of the striped hyaena {Hyaena striata) also occurs, where are discovered 

 further remains {H. intermedia) resembling the cave hyaena. The cave 

 hyaena was a very common animal, and is responsible for the destruction of 

 vast numbers of the bones of its contemporaries in a manner not pleasing 

 to the palaeontologist. According to the same authorities ^ (p. 117 seq.) 

 no constant osteological differences can be determined between the Pleisto- 

 cene cave wolf and the wolf of western Europe, although the former is of 

 considerably larger size. 



The badger (Males taxus) probably originated in west central Asia; 

 the only three other species known are confined to Asia. The two extinct 

 Lower Pliocene species are found in Persia, Maragha {M. polaki, M. mara- 

 ghanus)? 



Herbivores. — The large ruminant Herbivora of this period, the bison, 

 the urus, and reindeer, were widely distributed but not contemporaneous, 

 since they are chiefly characteristic of different life zones. The most typical 

 ruminant of the tundras, the musk ox (0. moschatus), sometimes occurs, 

 but is by no means common. 



Especially interesting is the appearance of the alpine ruminants, the 

 chamois {Rupicapra tragus), and the ibex {Capra ibex). 



Woldrich ^ has pointed out that the large herbivores were more closely 

 bound to their special conditions of environment, and thus more closely 

 reflect the changes of environment, than the carnivores, which continue 

 from one fauna into the next. Thus the bear, the Hon, and the hyaena 

 continue from one period into the next. The horse showed itself adaptive 

 because it continued through steppe times into the meadow and into the 

 forest period; it is probable that this was not a case of transformation 

 but of migration of types especially fitted to these habitats, namely, of 

 'steppe' and 'forest' horses. No 'tundra' horse is known, although re- 

 mains of horses occur in frozen tundras even bordering the Arctic Ocean 

 (see Alaska, p. 470). The reindeer also continued in the forests of Germany 

 after the time of Caesar, and in the forests of Scotland probably as late as 

 the twelfth century. 



' Gaudry, A., and Boule, M., Materiaux pour I'Histoire des Temps Quaternaires. 

 4. ifeme Fasc. Lcs Oubliettes de Gargas. Paris, 1892, pp. 108-112. 



2 Scharff, op. cit., 1899, p. 44. 



^ Woldrich, J. N., Die diluvialen Faunen Mitteleuropas und eine heutige Sareptaner 

 Steppenfauna in Niederosterreich. Mitth. anthrop. Ges. Wien, Vol. XI, n.s., Vol. I. Vienna, 

 1882. 



