The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
The Saiga is still met with, although very unfrequently, in the country
of the Ural Cossacks between the Wolga and the Ural, and extends
occasionally into the Government of Samara. East of the river Ural its
range extends over the Kirghiz Steppes and the steppe district of all
West Siberia--Turgai, Akmolinsk, and Semipalatinsk. South of this the
Saiga is also found in the steppes of Russian Turkestan and in the
Dsungarian steppes of Western Mongolia, but not in Transcaspia.
Such is the range of the Saiga at present. As already shown, it was
much wider than now even within the period of history. But when we go
back into the Pleistocene times we have good evidence that the Saiga
had a very much more extensive range, its fossil remains having been
obtained from the caverns and superficial deposits of Hungary, Belgium,
and Southern France. In the last-named country the researches of
French palæontologists have proved that its bones and teeth occur in
considerable numbers in certain of the cave deposits in the Departments
of Vienne, Dordogne, Tarn-et-Garonne, and Haute-Garonne. Moreover, as
shown by Mons. Gervais, at least one recognizable sketch of the head
of the Saiga has been found on an artificially incised bone of the
character so often met with in caverns where relics of human handiwork
occur. It appears, therefore, that the Saiga inhabited Western Europe
as late as the era of Palæolithic man, and was, moreover, in all
probability one of the objects of his chase.
Still more interesting, however, is it to find that, as shown by
Mr. A. Smith Woodward in a paper read before the Zoological Society
in 1890, the Saiga was also found in former days in Great Britain.
During excavations made in that year in the Pleistocene deposits
near Twickenham, a fine example of the frontlet and horn-cores of an
adult male _Saiga tatarica_ was discovered. By the kindness of
the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce the figure of this
interesting specimen (fig. 50, p. 39), which was exhibited by Mr. A.
Smith Woodward on the occasion in question, and is now in the gallery
of the British Museum.
Finally we may mention that, as has been recorded by Prof. Nehring,
there have been discovered in Moravia remains of a Saiga differing
from the living species in having three, in place of two, lower
premolars[2]. From the occurrence of these remains, and those of other
mammals now characteristic of the steppes in Western Europe, it has
been argued by geologists that steppe-like conditions and climate
must formerly have prevailed over large districts that have now quite
changed their character.
[Illustration: Fig. 50.
Frontlet and horns of Saiga (fossil), ♂. ½ nat. size.
(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 614.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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