On some Fossil Bovine Remains found in Britain. 77 



were found. In different parts of the same layer numerous 

 bones, horns, and teeth of the red deer have at various times 

 been discovered." 



The vertebra is the fifth cervical, and in its shapes and gene- 

 ral anatomical characters, especially the concavo-convex na- 

 ture of the articular surfaces of the centrum, and the foramina 

 at the roots of the transverse processes, bears a closer resem- 

 blance to the cervical vertebrae of the larger members of the 

 order Ruminantia than to those of any other mammalian order. 



Thinking, in the first instance, that it might belong to the 

 Megaceros hibernicus, I made a close comparison between it 

 and the fifth cervical vertebra of the skeleton of that animal 

 preserved in the Natural History Museum of the University 

 of Edinburgh. It differs, however, in several of its measure- 

 ments, more especially in the antero-posterior diameter, in 

 which it is considerably shorter. On the whole, it may be 

 said to possess a much more elegant shape than the vertebrse 

 of the Megaceros. In its characters it corresponds much more 

 closely to the fifth cervical vertebra of a bovine animal ; and, 

 from its size, it has probably belonged either to the Bos pri- 

 migenius, or to the great fossil Aurochs, Bison priscus. In 

 confirmation of this opinion, I have the high authority of 

 Professor Owen, to whom I presented a cast of the vertebra 

 some months ago. It may be interesting to contrast for a 

 moment this vertebra with a human cervical vertebra, when 

 the difference between the relative size of the neural canals 

 and the bony processes is at once apparent, the neural canal 

 of the fossil bone being very little larger than the correspond- 

 ing canal in the human vertebra, whilst the processes of the 

 former are many times larger than those of the latter. The 

 circumference of the fossil, measuring it around the tips of 

 the processes, is 26J inches. From the almost perfect state 

 of the bone, it must have reposed quietly in the position in 

 which it was found, and have been subjected there to very 

 slight external influences. 



The tooth found in the same stratum, and in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the vertebra, is the last pre-molar of the 

 right side of the upper jaw of a bovine animal, probably the 

 Bos primigenius. It has three fangs. The inner surface of 



