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| Uploaded by the user Ghedo on Wikimedia Commons |
Tuesday 22 February 2022
A possible skull of Bos primigenius siciliae
A while ago I did a post on the aurochs and insular dwarfism. On Sicily, the Sicilian dwarf aurochs, Bos primigenius siciliae, was found during the late Pleistocene. Now I found a photo of a possible skull of that subspecies on Wikimedia Commons:
I am not sure if it is really a skull of B. p. siciliae or just an aurochs found in Sicily, but the skull does not look very large. If it is really a skull of the Sicilian dwarf subspecies, it could mean that it was a comparably long-horned subspecies. Too bad the facial skull is not preserved, it would be interesting to know if this subspecies exhibited paedomorphy, which is often found in dwarf species.
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Did the presence of large carnivores on Sicily occur during the same time period as the Sicilian dwarf aurochs and if so would they have affected the morphology of the aurochs?
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