iii. T he L e p to bo v in e G roup— S ub - G enus L eptobos (Extinct)
Leptobos, Riitimeyer, Abh. schweiz. pal. Ges. vol. i. p. 167 (1878) ;
Lydekker, Cat. Foss. Mamm. Brit. Mas. pt. ii. p. 36 (1885).
Characters.— Apparently allied, especially f | the, shortness o f the skull
and its nasal bones and the curvature of the cylindrical horns, to the
banting, but with the horn-cores of the bulls situated far below the vertex
of the skull, midway between the occiput and the orbits, and the coit§il
hornless.
The sub-genus, or genus, was originally described on the evidence of
hornless bovine skulls from the Tertiary deposits of the Val d’Arno, which
were regarded as specifically distinct from the horned Bos elatus of the same
deposits. But there can be little or »«hesitation in -accepting the view
of Dr. Forsyth-Major that the one is merely the female of the other:'
In the position of the horn-cores o f the male and their absence in the
female, the members of this group must be regarded as the most primitive
representatives H the oxen at present known. Their apparent affinity to
the banting S i n harmony with the well-ascertained fact that several of
the mammalian genera now living in the Malayan countries are related to
extinct European Tertiary forms.
Distribution.— The southern part of the Western Holarctic, and a
portion of the Oriental region during the Pliocene and Plistocene epochs. 1
1. T he E t r u s c a n O x— Bos e l a t u s (Extinct)
Bos elatus, Pomel, Catalogue M&hodique, p. 1 14 (1853.)»; Lydekker, Cat.
Foss. Mamm. Brit. Mus. pt. ii. p. 19 (1885).
Bos etruscus, Falconer, Palceontological Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 481 (1868) ;
Dawkins, Quart. Journ. Geol. Sec . vol. xxxvi. p. 394 (1880) ; Forsyth-
Major, ibid. vol. xli„ p. 6 (1885).
Bos [Bibos) etruscus, Riitimeyer, Abh. Schweiz, pal. Ges. vol. v. p. 154
m u
Leptobos strozzii, Riitimeyer, op. cit. p. i 6 || ( i 87:8)>
Leptobdi.elatus, Forsyth-MajoBP. V. Soc. Toscana, 1890, p. 75.
Fig. 7.—Skull and horn-cores of the Extinct Etruscan Ox. From a specimen in the Museum
at Florence. After Riitimeyer.
Characters,.— Probably of the approximate side of the banting, with
the born-cores of the male diverging at first almost directly outwards, and
then curving gradually upwards, with a decided inward inclination at the
tips. The limb-bones indicate a comparatively slightly built animal; and
the lower molar teeth have a small additional column on the inner side.
Distribution.—France and Italy during the late Pliocene epoch.
H