Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/24

 What we are asked to believe is that our wild white cattle, and some at least of our domestic breeds trace back direct to this ancient giant, Bos primigenius. Sentiment and vanity tempt us to accept the belief, although we admit, in doing so, that our forefathers have left us a sadly degenerate legacy. We must dissent, however, from other considerations, the chief of which is that no remains of Bos primigenius have been found in deposits later than those of the Bronze Age. "The Urus or Bos primigenius &hellip; is characteristic of the time when men used polished stone implements, that is, of the Neolithic or Newer Stone Age. It probably did not become extinct until the Bronze Age."

Even were the geological record less clear, it would still be difficult to prove that Bos primigenius was the ancestor of our modern cattle. The skeletal inconsistencies are too great. Leaving other considerations aside, and taking Fleming's measurements, which are the smallest, it is inconceivable that an animal whose skull was 27 inches long by 11 inches broad should be the ancestor of, say, the modern Shorthorn, an animal not much younger in time, whose skull is 23 or 24 inches long by 11 or 12 broad: that is, that the ratio of length to breadth should change from $$\overset{2.5}{1}$$ to $$\overset{2}{1}$$.

It has been maintained that Bos primigenius