The Store Damme specimen from Denmark is a nearly complete skeleton of a male aurochs. The mount has a withers height of 175 cm [1], what means that in life the bull might have been 180 or 185 cm tall at the withers.
As so many aurochs skeletons, it is mounted anatomically incorrect. The hind legs are bent too much, also the spine is mounted in a straight line, while in a living bovine the spine is curved on the anterior part of the trunk. Also, the front legs are not mounted entirely life-like. Using GIMP, I corrected the position of the bone elements, including the spine, front legs and hind legs. The result is about as tall as the wrongly mounted skeleton, and looks much more natural and anatomically plausible to me:
Seeing the corrected version, I could not resist doing a life restoration of it, using GIMP. Here is the result:
I will use it as a basis for a couple of new aurochs models that I am planning at the moment but do not have the time to build them right now.
Literature
Pucher, Erich: Wie kam der Auerochse auf die Alm? 2019.
Good work!
ReplyDeleteI suppose the hind legs to be even a little more straight, so that the back of the bull would seem a little higher.
Final result is very similar to a long legged Lidia bull.
I don't think the legs were stretched much more, I oriented myself at living cattle individuals. See here for a comparison: http://info.ncagr.gov/DeepFried/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMG_4935.jpg
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