Show BY THE HORNS museum seum traces family tree W ut of shaggy rii TT haired 1 1 plains clams m 4 bison n i features I 1 LINCOLN NEB the family tree of the great plains bison is being given its first geologically scientific appraisal by the university of nebraska state museum research completed in the past eight years year s reveals t that hat ancestors of the shaggy haired creatures which in the century numbered rn illions and drew hunters from over the world to the plains of ka kansas n and nebraska first came to I 1 worth north america abo about 1 ut years I 1 ago that was when the second of the three big glaciers of the ice age I 1 was vas retreating from the northern great creat plains dr C B D schultz museum dire director C and W D frankforter kf orter assistant curator of paleontology of the museum report that their studies is thus far indicate two unusual tendencies in evolution of the bison 1 first the great granddaddy oi of th them emall all who came to this con asia was characterized mainly by huge horns which averaged 80 inches nom from tip to tip but the body of this creature known scientifically as super bison was less than I 1 a toot foot taller and a foot longer than the present buffalo succeeding generations showed only one significant change 11 H size of of ilia he horns they steadily shrink shrank to bodi iii average r j inches from up tip to tip the body 1 nearly the same I 1 second the bison unlike other prehistoric animals found d in north america such as elephants pha tits rhinos horses and cam cail t i els first appeared on our continent as a large animal and decreased I 1 in size the university of nebraska scientists also believe on the basis of present studies that the bison population has haklits had its ups and downs down the first bison they say apparently was relatively few in numbers since only a few scattered skeletal remains have been found thus tar far in kansas and nebraska dibut but they increased in numbers rapidly rapid lyas as the climate began warming up and more food was made available to the growing herds but I 1 about years year sago ago a human civilization apparently a race of han hunters migrated from asia to this continent and the numbers of bison berd were greatly reduced these tese tribes ifo 4 it 0 w av e v a r suddenly disappeared from the great plains for reasons which are still a mystery to scientists after their disappearance I 1 however bison herds staged a comeback Thet the herds balne 1 steadily ineize in size even after appearance of th the elearly i early indians in the great plains region but with the coming of the white man the bison all but disappeared from the continent the ie research search work now under way at university of nebraska is expected to take at least five more years to complete |