44 



Lydekker. ^ Its scientific specific iiaine is triquetricomis (Rutimeyer) and as generic names 

 have been used Bos, Bubalus, Probubalus and Hemibos. Its remains are found in the 

 Pliocene of Northern India. In many respects it agrees with the still living Anoa of 

 Celebes, which also must be regarded as a primitive form, although it has in consequence 

 of its insular isolation been subjected to degeneration, as is also the opinion of Heller^ 

 and Lydekker (1. c.). As features of degeneration may be regarded the small size of 

 the Anoa, the loss of its foremost mandibular prasmolar and of the accessory columns 

 of the two posterior molars of the maxillary^ etc. ^> Hemibos triquetricomis-» also resembles 

 the Tamarou or Mindoro buffalo which, on the other hand, as Lydekker says (1. c. p. 

 128), is »in many respects intermediate between small forms of the Indian buffalo and 

 the anoa». With the typical Indian buffalo ^!>Hemibos triquetricomis^) is connected by the 

 likewise pliocene Bubalus platyceros Lydekker, a-bout which latter the author quoted says 

 that it »makes a decided approach to the anoa and its extinct allies, which it thus serves 

 to connect with the Indian buffalo». The triquetricomis form occupies accordingly a 

 rather central and intermediate position, at the same time that it is a primitive and 

 ancestral type. The latter statement is proved by the large extension of its parietal zone, 

 the position and shape of its horns etc, tbrough which it resembles the more generalised 

 types of Cavicornia and indicates itself to be decidedly more primitive and less 

 specialised than the Indian as well as the African buffaloes. When this is the case, it 

 must, even if it should not actually be the progenitor of all the Asiatic buffaloes, possess 

 characteristics, which liave been acquired rather early during the development of the 

 series of Asiatic buffaloes. »Hemibos triquetricomis» was provided with hollow horncores, 

 as may be seen from ROtimeyers figure 1 Taf. VII in his work »Die Rindcr der Tertiär- 

 Epoche», which represents a skull of this species belonging to British Museum. This 

 characteristic is thus very ancient in this group. When the pliocene Asiatic buffaloes 

 already had acquired hollow horncores, the African buffaloes with their solid cores cannot 

 be derived from the same origin, because, as is said above, it is hardly probable that a 

 hollow core again becomes solid. Such a metamorphosis must namely be regarded as an 

 unnatural retrogression to a previous and more primitive stage. During such circum- 

 stances there cannot have been any genetic connection between the Asiatic buffaloes and 

 the African ones, at least not between the present time and the Pliocene epoch. The 

 distinction, made by Rutimeyer 1865 and again repeated by the same author in låter 

 works,* of the buffaloes in a genus Buffelus comprising the Asiatic and another Bubalus 

 including the African forms seems through this to gain new validity and foundation, 

 although I am inclined to let Rutimeyer's genus Probubalus (resp. Hemibos), which without 

 doubt stånds in genetic connection with the present and extinct members of Buffelus, be 

 included in this last mentioned genus. The members of this genus Buffelus m a wider 

 sense, living as well as extinct, have also in addition to the characteristics of the horns 



1) Wild Oxen etc. p. 136. 



2) Der Urliiiffel von Celebes. 1889. 



^) The loss of these elements is not complete in all specimens, as Heller also has stated (1. c.). 



*) Rind. Tert. p. 189 etc. 



