Word: ox
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...most prospective voters remain to some degree skeptical of government promises that the vote will be completely clean and fraud free. "I don't support any candidate because all I see is corruption and promises that are never kept," said Fidel Lopez Cruz, 67, as he pushed his crude ox-drawn plow across a small plot of land near Oaxaca. If the public concludes the results have been fixed, the new President could face a prolonged period of unrest...
Scientists have the first living specimen of a large mammal species that was only discovered two years ago. In Viet Nam, authorities have confiscated a young female Vu Quang ox that had been captured by a hunter. The species was identified in 1992 when a research team came upon skulls previously unknown to science in hunters' homes. The strange animal, which in different respects resembles cattle, goats and antelope, represents only the fourth new genus of large land mammal to be discovered this century...
...traps moisture evaporated from the South China Sea, creating an unusually stable but inhospitable climate. Incessant rains during the rainy season and dripping fogs during the dry season nurture a slick algae that add a treacherous coating to rocks and other surfaces. That may explain why the Vu Quang ox evolved narrow, two-toed hooves with a concave area on the bottom that could give the animal a better grip on the terrain...
Nonetheless, the Vu Quang ox, giant muntjac and slow-running deer might have come to the attention of the world much sooner had Vietnam and Laos not been isolated by wars and trade embargoes. For many years, local hunters and even Laotian forest officials have used antlers taken from the animals as hat racks or as parts of ceremonial altars, unaware that these trophies represented species new to science. Indeed, MacKinnon found among the unsorted bones in the collection of Hanoi's Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources some skulls of the slow-running deer that had been gathering dust...
...simple horns that remind Arctander of a Viking helmet. The giant muntjac has large canine teeth that deerlike animals used in fights long ago, before they evolved elaborate antlers. All three animals have braincases that are relatively small in proportion to their size. Taxonomist Groves says the Vu Quang ox seems somewhat similar to the hemibos, an extinct creature that lived in India 5 million years...