The lost Berlin skull, the Sassenberg cow and the Vig bull

I am constantly trying to reconstruct as many aurochs specimen as possible to get an impression of the variation in the European subspecies, B. p. primigenius. Recently I did another three artworks, as usual by reconstructing directly over photos of the actual skeletal material, to be as precise as possible. 

The lost skull from Berlin 

There is a very large aurochs skull on display at the Natural History Museum of Berlin. But the museum also had another skull which is now lost. It was part of a complete skeleton which was on display at the museum and may be now in the collection. Here you can see the photo of the skeleton which my reconstruction is based on. 

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The horns seem to be oriented in an angle larger than 60° to the skull (which is the average according to van Vuure 2005). The horns are also not that strongly inwards-curving, at least not the bony cores. The keratinous sheath adds about 10% to the length of the horn in my reconstruction, which may even be conservative. 

The horns resemble those of some Watussi and some Heck cattle of the Steinberg/Wörth lineage, at least from this angle. 

The Sassenberg cow 

The Sassenberg cow specimen was the subject of the previous post. Now I also did a reconstruction of the head in profile view. 

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The skull of aurochs is usually more elongated than in most domestic cattle, but this is more apparent in bulls than in cows. The skull shape of cows of some landraces, for example Sayaguesa, might be similar to that of the Sassenberg cow. Note that my reconstruction of the cow is not supposed to be completely black, but only neck and face as in many wildtype coloured cows. 

The Vig bull 

I reconstructed the Vig bull already several times, here is my most recent reconstruction. Using a photo by Markus Bühler I did another one recently: 

© Markus Bühler

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I think the mount is anatomically correct enough to be used for a reconstruction, I just slightly altered the position of the hind legs. The horns of the Vig bull are comparably upright, which is apparent in this view (I estimate 85° relative to the skull).