The craniology and relationships of four species of Bos,: 4. The Relationship between Bos primigenius Boj. and B. taurus L. and its implications for the Phylogeny of the Domestic Breeds

The three previous papers in this series Grigson, 1974, Grigson, 1975, Grigson, 1976 were a study of the basic craniology of the genus Bos using B. taurus as an example. This paper deals with B. primigenius from Holocene deposits in northern Europe, studying the relationship of absolute size, cranial proportions, angles and non-measurable characters to age and sex. It concludes that the two size forms of B. primigenius are merely the expression of sexual dimorphism, that the two forms B. primigenius and B. taurus are so similar that they form a continuum and should be considered to be of the same taxon, and that where B. taurus does differ from B. primigenius the differences can usually be ascribed to breed and can be described as specializations.