CHAPTER XI 
SOME EXTINCT CATTLE 
GEOLOGICALLY speaking, the ox tribe is an 
essentially modern group, not dating back, so 
far as is at present known, before the early part of 
the Pliocene, or upper, division of the Tertiary epoch. 
Although the group is evidently related to the ante- 
lopes, and, as pointed out in an earlier chapter, may 
have near affinities with the gnus of Africa, its direct 
ancestors are still unknown. In this connection it 
may be mentioned that the earliest representatives of 
the group are related to the buffaloes, which, as 
already stated, constitute in some respects the most 
primitive of the living forms, and are those whose 
horns come nearest in shape to those of the gnus. 
That the group is of Old World origin has been 
already mentioned ; the only section which has 
reached America, by way of Bering Strait, being the 
bisons, which in past times reached as far south as 
Texas and California, but never penetrated South 
America. 
Of the extinct aurochs {Bos taurus priviigenius) of 
Europe and western Asia a sufficient account has 
been given in an earlier chapter, although it may be 
added that the species was represented in Algeria 
and Tunis by a local race {B. A maiiritafticUs) 
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