THE ANCESTRY OF DOMESTICATED CATTLE. 
197 
RECENT PERIOD. 
Bos PRIMIGENIUS. 
Bos primigenius (Boj, 1827), a contemporary and probably a vari- 
ety of B. namadicus^ was a large and stately animal, being 6 or 7 
feet high at the withers. It roamed over western Asia, northern 
Africa, and the entire continent of Europe during the Pleistocene 
and Recent periods. Like its near relative the European bison (Bos 
honasus) , it was a forest-loving animal and, judging from old pictures 
Fig. 12. — Frontal aspect of four types of skulls. (After Wilokens.) 
and inscriptions, it had a hairy coat, which varied in color from 
black or dark brown in summer to gray in winter. A light -colored 
ring encircled the muzzle, and along the back was a white stripe. 
Unlike the bison, it had no long hair about the head and neck. To 
the old Teutons, who used its large horns for drinking vessels, it 
was known as the aurochs, or ur. But after its extinction the latter 
name was applied to the bison, which unfortunately has led to much 
confusion. To the Russians it was knoAvn as the tur or thur. Ca^Siir 
speaks of it as urus. 
