334 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



seen among the Kabyles and the Guanches of Teneriffe. 3 

 _Z?, April 2, 1874, 663. 



EVOLUTION OF THE HOG. 



The predecessors or ancestors of the hog, Babirussa, and 

 of similar existing animals, are being gradually brought to 

 light by modern paleontological studies. One of these, 

 nearest the domesticated form, has been found in the miocene 

 of France, and is referred to the genus Palmochcerus. It is 

 also related to the peccaries, which appear to have lived dur- 

 ing the same early jjeriod in North America in considerable 

 abundance. Their existence in South America at the present 

 time is one of many indications that that region has not ad- 

 vanced in respect to its fauna as rapidly as our own and the 

 old continents. Another miocene o;enus of ho^s is the Elo- 

 therium, which has left remains in France and North Amer- 

 ica. The common species of the Nebraska beds is the E. 

 mortonii of Leidy, which was as large as a pig. Its front 

 teeth are much developed, at the expense of the hinder ones; 

 and it had bony tuberosities on the under jaw, in the positions 

 now supporting wattles in the hog. Professor Cope, of Hay- 

 den's United States Survey, discovered during the past sea- 

 son in Colorado much the largest species of Elotherium yet 

 known. The skull was longer than that of the Indian rhi- 

 noceros, and the tuberosities of the lower jaw were greatly 

 developed. The front pair formed divergent branches on 

 the lower front of the chin, so that it appeared to bear a horn 

 on each side, which the animal doubtless found useful in root- 

 ing in the earth. The species was semi-aquatic in its habits, 

 like the hippopotamus and dinotherium ; but while these 

 are furnished with extraordinary developments of the lower 

 incisor teeth for tearing up their food, the Elotherium ramo- 

 sum is the only animal known which possessed horns in the 

 same position and for the same purpose. A still older type 

 of hogs which may claim to be the predecessor in structure 

 as well as in time of all known genera is the Achce?iodo?i y 

 Cope, from the eocene of Wyoming. The A. insolens was 

 a powerful beast, larger than a bear, with a comparatively 

 short head, and with the uninterrupted series of teeth which 

 belongs to all the oldest forms of the mammals and to the 

 higher quadrumana. 



