FAUNA OF THE POST-PLIOCENE 369 



deposits, and is remarkable for the enormous size of the 

 spreading antlers, which are widened out towards their ex- 

 tremities, and attain an expanse of over ten feet from tip to 

 tip. It is not a genuine Elk, but is intermediate between 

 the Reindeer and the Fallow-deer. Among the existing Deer 



Fig. 265 .--Skull of the Urus (Bos primigeniua) . Post-Pliocene and Recent. 

 (After Owen.) 



of the Post-Pliocene, the most noticeable is the Reindeer, 

 an essentially northern type, existing at the present day in 

 Northern Europe, and also (under the name of- the "Caribou") 

 in North- America. When the cold of the Glacial period be- 

 came established, this boreal species was enabled to invade 

 Central and Western Europe in great herds, and its remains 

 are found abundantly in cave-earths and other Post-Pliocene 

 deposits as far south as the Pyrenees. 



In addition to the above, the Post-Pliocene deposits of 

 Europe and North America have yielded the remains of vari- 

 ous Sheep and Oxen. One of the most interesting of the 

 latter is the "Urus" or Wild Bull (Bos primigenius., fig. 265), 

 which, though much larger than any of the existing forms, is 

 believed to be specifically undistinguishable from the domes- 

 tic Ox (Bos taurus}, and to be possibly the ancestor of some 

 of the larger European varieties of oxen. In the earlier part 

 of its existence the Urus ranged over Europe and Britain in 

 company with the Woolly Rhinoceros and the Mammoth ; but 

 it long survived these, and does not appear to have been 

 24 



