4io UNGULATA 



rhinoceros is usually very fat ; and its meat is then most excellent, 

 being something like beef, but yet having a peculiar flavour of its 

 own. The part in greatest favour among hunters is the hump, 

 which, if cut off whole and roasted just as it is in the skin, in a 

 hole dug in the ground, would, I think, be difficult to match either 

 for juiciness or flavour." 



The molar dentition is of the type obtaining in R. unicornis, so 

 that in this respect R. simus has the same relation to R. bicornis as 

 is presented by R. unicornis to R. sondaicus. The ear-conch of the 

 Square-mouthed Rhinoceros is very large, elongated, and pointed at 

 its extremity, which bears only a slight tuft of hair ; it is much ex- 

 panded in the middle, and the lower portion has its edges united 

 to form a short tube. The nostrils have a long slit-like aperture ; 

 and the eye is situated behind the posterior horn. 



Extinct Species. — Using the generic term Rhinoceros in its widest 

 signification, a very large number of fossil forms may be referred to 

 it, the earliest of which date from the Upper Eocene (Oligocene) 

 Phosphorites of Central France. Only a few of the more im- 

 portant of these types can, however, be even mentioned in this 

 place. 



In the Pliocene Siwaliks of India R. sivalensis appears to have 

 been the direct ancestor of R, sondaicus ; while R. palm adieu* was 

 probably nearly related to R. unicornis, although the upper molars 

 had not developed a combing-plate. 



R. schleirmacheri, of the Lower Pliocene of Europe, falls into 

 the Ceratorhine group, although differing from R. sumatrensis by 

 the union of the post-glenoid and post-tympanic processes of the 

 squamosal beneath the auditory meatus. The Middle Miocene 

 R. sansaniensis was a closely allied if not identical form. 



The Atelodine group was very widely spread in past epochs. 

 Thus the huge R. platyrhinus of the Indian Pliocene, and the equally 

 large R. antiquitatis of the Pleistocene of Europe, were specialised 

 forms with a dentition resembling that of R. simus, to which they 

 were probably allied. An upper molar of R. antiquitatis — the so- 

 called Tichorine, or "Woolly Rhinoceros — is shown in the woodcut 

 on p. 402. Of this species nearly whole carcases, with the thick 

 woolly external covering, have been discovered associated with 

 those of the Mammoth, preserved in the frozen soil of the north of 

 Siberia. In common with some other extinct species it had a solid 

 median wall of bone supporting the nasals, from which it is inferred 

 that the horns were of a size and weight surpassing that of the 

 modern species. In the Lower Pliocene of Attica R. pachygnathus 

 appears to have been closely allied to R. bicornis. Several species, 

 such as R. leptorhinus (Fig. 173), R, megarhinus, and R. etruscus, 

 occur in the European Pleistocene which do not present a marked 

 relationship to any of the living forms. This group is also repre- 



