310 AXXALs XEW YORE ACADEMY OF sCIEyCES 



horse disTinguislied by small, fine head, large eyes, slender limbs, five 

 lumbar vertebrae, now found in more or less pure form in the outlying 

 islands a~d on the coast of western Europe. This animal is believed to 

 be a northern, hardy, thick-coated relative of the pure desert type, better 

 known as the Arabian, which gave rise to the modern thoroughbred. 

 Perfect representations of this type of horse are found in the engravings 

 and mural paintings of the Magdalenian artists in the caverns of Font 

 de Gaume, Combarelle, and Grotte de la Mairie. 



A possible contributory to the desert breed of the Pleistocene and of 

 the modern domesticated horses is the animal of the E. sivalensis type of 

 the ITpper Pliocene in the Siwaliks of India. This animal is tall, with 

 long, fairly slender limbs, long neck, well elevated tail, long face, which 

 is strongly deflected on the cranium ^ith a slightly convex profile and 

 broad brow, and teeth with a narrow protocone. 



Bears. — The Postglacial bears (Ursus spelaus) are found in greater 

 abundance than the lions. They include a gigantic and a smaller va- 

 riety. The former (Urstis spelceus) nearly equalled the larger recent 

 bears in size and were more thick-set and of heavier proportions: the 

 front paws especially were of tremendous size. During a long period 

 the cave bears undoubtedly haunted the caverns undisturbed by Palaeo- 

 lithic man and developed certain peculiarities of structure in these 

 haunts : thus the claw-bearing phalanges are feebly developed, indicating 

 that the claws had partly lost their prehensile function; the anterior 

 premolar teeth are practically vestigial: the cusps of the grinding teeth 

 are blunted in a way which is indicative of an omnivorous diet. It would 

 appear, therefore, that the large herbivorous mammals and even primi- 

 tive man found no veiy formidable enemy in the cave bear. While the 

 other and smaller races were contemporaiy, there are certain indications 

 that the smaller race (Ursus suh-sp elans) was geologically older, being 

 found at ^losbach during the Second Interglacial Stage. Both races 

 became extinct during Postglacial times without leaving descendants. 



The ancestor (Ursus arctos priscus) of the brown bear of Europe, by 

 some believed to be a descendant of the etruscan bear (Ursus eiruscus) 

 of the First or Xorfolkian Interglacial Stage, is also occasionally found 

 in the Pleistocene cave deposits. It is not so large as the cave bear and 

 while it has been mistakenly identified with the American grizzly (f7. 

 JiorribiU'S) in reality it has closer affinities to the European brown bear 

 (Ursus arctos). 



The badger (Meles iaius) also probably originated in west-central 

 Asia, since the only other species known are confined to Asia. The two 



