﻿178 EVOLUTION IN THE PAST 



earlier times. For a long time their forerunners probably- 

 remained but little distinguishable from primitive antelopes ; 

 but in the earlier Pliocene goats had so far progressed as to 

 resemble species now living in the Himalayan mountain 

 ranges. Some with back-curved horns seem to have been 

 closely related to the Thar (Capra sivalensis, Hemitragus) ; 

 others, similarly horned, were forerunners apparently of 

 ibexes (C. sibirica) ; whilst yet other forms resembled, at 

 least in their straight spiral horns, the bearded Markhors — 

 the champions of the goat-world (C. Falconeri). 

 goat-oxen Other related animals — that possibly had not taken to 

 a mountain life — were of less pronounced development, 

 being goat-like as regards the head, but toothed as oxen 

 (Bucapra). In common with the short-necked giraffes, the 

 ruminant-toothed pig-like animals, the hornless rhinoceroses, 

 the three-toed horses, and the long-chinned, and the bent- 

 chinned elephants, these animals stood out in strange con- 

 trast with the more modernised mammals. Nor were they 

 oxen harbingers of oxen, for animals closely allied to the living 

 Yak had already appeared (Bos sivalensis). Primitive bison 

 were also about in herds, and small animals closely allied to 

 our domestic cattle (B. planifrons). 

 antelope Whatever horned ruminants may have branched off from 

 primitive antelopes, antelope-life was well developed in 

 the linear direction. The evidence of this in Europe is more 

 than confirmed by that derived from India. Nilgai-looking 

 animals (ancestors of the cow-like short-horned antelopes 

 now living in that country) were certainly on the scene 

 (Boselaphus). Kudus and elands, more or less in an inter- 

 volved condition in Europe, were in India separately es- 

 tablished (Strepsiceros, Orias). Sable antelopes were also to 

 be seen, no longer characterised, as in the West, by strongly 

 marked affinities with the Oryx (Hippotragus). Whilst four- 

 horned antelopes (Tetraceros), hartebeests (Bubalis), and 

 small forms of water-buck (Cobus) bore further witness to 

 the varied development which antelope-life had undergone. 

 No nilgai ever seem to have left their Indian habitats ; 

 but in course of time kudus, elands, sable antelopes, harte- 

 beests, and water-buck all forsook their ancient haunts ; 



