Fossil water buffalo Bubalus palaeokerabau Late... Lot 7

Fossil water buffalo Bubalus palaeokerabau Late Pleistocene Ngandong Java, Indonesia H. 53 ¼ in - L. 70  ¾ in Discovered at Ngandong in East Java, the site of the last appearance of Homo erectus (117,000 - 108,000 years ago), this magnificent skull of Bubalus palaeokerabau is reminiscent of a contemporary hunting trophy, but dates to the late Pleistocene. Bubalus palaeokerabau is an extinct species of buffalo, endemic to Java, which can be distinguished from more recent domestic water buffalo by its larger size and extremely long horns, which can be up to 2.5 m long and are characterized by a triangular cross-section. The island of Java is the most paleo-anthropologically rich area in Southeast Asia for the Pleistocene. Given the presence in this area of numerous hominid remains, lithic tools, and numerous mammal fossils, especially large bovids, such as Bubalus palaeokerabau or Bibos palaesondaicus, and small deer, such as Axis lydekkeri, the link between Middle Pleistocene mammals and Homo erectus is evident. The use of the buffalo undoubtedly has origins much older than the arrival of Hindus in the archipelago in the first centuries of the Christian era. This is clearly demonstrated by the indigenous terms and names used for irrigated rice cultivation. This cultivation, to which the water buffalo is so intimately related, was already known to the primitive Malay peoples who lived here before the arrival of the Indians. According to Coenraad biologist Jacob Temminck in West Java, there is a tradition that the Hindu king of Padjadjaran was the first to use buffalo for plowing. This monarch then received the name mahesa and his son was called moeriding. The title mahesa, of which moending is an equivalent, literally means "male buffalo", but in the sense of "his majesty."