Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
If we next turn to the remains of vertebrata preserved in the mounds,
we find that here also, as in the Danish peat-mosses, all the quadrupeds
belong to species known to have inhabited Europe within the memory of
Man. No remains of the mammoth, or rhinoceros, or of any extinct
species appear, except those of the wild bull (Bos urus, Linn., or Bos
primigenius, Bojanus), which are in such numbers as to prove that the
species was a favourite food of the ancient people. But as this animal
was seen by Julius Caesar, and survived long after his time, its
presence alone would not go far to prove the mounds to be of high
antiquity. The Lithuanian aurochs or bison (Bos bison, L., Bos priscus,
Boj.), which has escaped extirpation only because protected by the
Russian Czars, surviving in one forest in Lithuania) has not yet been
met with, but will no doubt be detected hereafter, as it has been
already found in the Danish peat. The beaver, long since destroyed in
Denmark, occurs frequently, as does the seal (Phoca Gryppus, Fab.), now
very rare on the Danish coast. With these are mingled bones of the red
deer and roe, but the reindeer has not yet been found. There are also
the bones of many carnivora, such as the lynx, fox, and wolf, but no
signs of any domesticated animals except the dog. The long bones of the
larger mammalia have been all broken as if by some instrument, in such
a manner as to allow of the extraction of the marrow, and the gristly
parts have been gnawed off, as if by dogs, to whose agency is also
attributed the almost entire absence of the bones of young birds and of
the smaller bones and softer parts of the skeletons of birds in general,
even of those of large size. In reference to the latter, it has been
proved experimentally by Professor Steenstrup, that if the same species
of birds are now given to dogs, they will devour those parts of the
skeleton which are missing, and leave just those which are preserved in
the old "kitchen-middens."
The dogs of the mounds, the only domesticated animals, are of a smaller
race than those of the bronze period, as shown by the peat-mosses, and
the dogs of the bronze age are inferior in size and strength to those
of the iron age. The domestic ox, horse, and sheep, which are wanting
in the mounds, are confined to that part of the Danish peat which was
formed in the ages of bronze and iron.
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