湖北郧西白龙洞古人类遗址的大额牛化石

牛亚科动物在中国第四纪古人类遗址中十分常见,但其分类和鉴定仍存在诸多问题。南方洞穴动物群经常仅有单个牙齿保存,所以南方更新世洞穴遗址中牛亚科动物化石鉴别问题更为突出。湖北郧西白龙洞古人类遗址出土的大型牛亚科动物化石,不仅有大量单个牙齿,还有残破颅骨、角心、下颌骨及头后骨骼。白龙洞的牛亚科动物角心粗短、横截面呈背腹略扁的椭圆形;额骨上的角间隆突发育且呈拱形;顶骨从颅顶退出;枕面较圆且高;角后颅骨收缩强烈使得枕骨上部变窄,颞窝明显凹进;下颌角大于90°,下颌支向后倾斜;下颌p2的结构复杂程度介于水牛Bubalus和黄牛Bos(Bos)taurus之间。依据上述特征,可将白龙洞的大型牛亚科动物化石归入大额牛Bos(Bibos)gaurus。白龙洞是我国出土大额牛化石最为丰富的古人类遗址,为区分南方洞穴出土的牛亚科动物化石提供了重要材料。

Pleistocene Bos (Bibos) gaurus from Bailong Cave in Yunxi County,Hubei, China

Bovine is very common in Quaternary hominid sites in China with abundant fossil specimens. But there are still many controversies of the identification and classification. Isolated teeth are the most very often finds at cave sites in South China, so the problems about the identification of Bovine are particularly acute. The present paper describes the fossil Bovine from Bailong Cave in Hubei Province. There are a large quantity of isolated teeth, broken crania, horn-cores, mandibles and post cranial bones. The remarkable characters of these fossils are as follows: horn-cores short and strong, dorsoventrally elliptical in cross-section; frontals arched and rised between the horn-cores; parietals retreat from face frontails; occipitals round and relatively high; postcornual constriction is quite narrow and the temporal fossae have strong depressions; the angle of mandible is over 90°and the mandibular ramus leans backward; morphological complexity of p2 is between that of Bubalus and Bos (Bos) taurustaurus. Based on the morphological characters and dimensions, these fossils are referred to Bos (Bibos) gaurus. Bailong Cave has the most abundant specimens of Bos (Bibos) gaurus in China, which offer the important evidences to distinguish the Bovine fossils from Cave sites in South China.