MAMMALIA. 



43 



16-19. 



corresponds exactly with the life-history of the antlers in any Table-case 

 individual modern deer — at first there are no antlers, then 9 - 



single prongs, then increasing complexity until the maximum 

 is reached in full maturity. 



The antelopes, sheep and 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 Pliocene period. 

 The present distribution of many species, however, is quite 

 limited, compared with their range in the Pleistocene period. 

 The Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), 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 Pier-case 16. The European bison (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 moschatus), now confined to the extreme north, came 

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

 typical remains from the Thames Valley in Pier-case 16. The 

 urus (Bos primigenius), which was seen by Caesar in historic 

 times in the Hercynian forest, was quite common in the 



Pier-ease 

 16. 



Fig. 3i. — Skull of the Urus (Bos primigenius) , from the British Pleisto- 

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



Pleistocene period throughout Europe (Fig. 34). Sir Antonio 

 Brady's collection of the remains of this ox from Ilford, 



