[With respect to the parentage of the several European breeds, we already
know much from Nilsson's Memoir (3/37. A translation appeared in three
parts in the 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 2nd series volume 4 1849.),
and more especially from Rutimeyer's works and those of Boyd Dawkins. Two
or three species or forms of Bos, closely allied to still living domestic
races, have been found in the more recent tertiary deposits or amongst
prehistoric remains in Europe. Following Rutimeyer, we have:-
Bos primigenius.
This magnificent, well known species was domesticated in Switzerland during
the Neolithic period; even at this early period it varied a little, having
apparently been crossed with other races. Some of the larger races on the
Continent, as the Friesland, etc., and the Pembroke race in England,
closely resemble in essential structure B. primigenius, and no doubt are
its descendants. This is likewise the opinion of Nilsson. Bos primigenius
existed as a wild animal in Caesar's time, and is now semi-wild, though
much degenerated in size, in the park of Chillingham; for I am informed by
Professor Rutimeyer, to whom Lord Tankerville sent a skull, that the
Chillingham cattle are less altered from the true primigenius type than any
other known breed. (3/38. See also Rutimeyer 'Beitrage pal. Gesch. der
Wiederkauer' Basel 1865 s. 54.)
Bos trochoceros.
This form is not included in the three species above mentioned, for it is
now considered by Rutimeyer to be the female of an early domesticated form
of B. primigenius, and as the progenitor of his frontosus race. I may add
that specific names have been given to four other fossil oxen, now believed
to be identical with B. primigenius. (3/39. Pictet 'Palaeontologie' tome 1
page 365 2nd edition. With respect to B. trochoceros see Rutimeyer 'Zahmen
Europ. Rindes' 1866 s. 26.)
Bos longifrons (or brachyceros) of Owen.
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