Praeovibus priscus (Bovidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the North Sea and aspects of 
its paleoecology

Three vertebrae are described and attributed to the extinct muskox Praeovibos priscus STAUDINGER, 1908. The three vertebrae were trawled from the bottom of the North Sea between The Netherlands and England. The vertebrae are surprisingly large and strongly mineralised, such in contrast to bones attributed to the Late Pleistocene muskox Ovibos moschatus (ZIMMERMANN, 1780). Alate Early Pleistocene or Middle Pleistocene age is inferred for these bones. The faunal elements, with which the species is found associated, indicate that P. priscus was not an inhabitant of the cold mammoth steppe. Unlike modern O. moschatus it may have had a short-haired pelage.