634 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



It has for some time been known that the brain of the African 

 aardvark (Orycteropus) exhibits a distinct approximation to the 

 ungulate type ; and, in a paper contributed to the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society for 1913 (pp. 878-93), Mr. R. W. Palmer 

 has shown that this resemblance is most pronounced when the 

 brain of Orycteropus is compared with the cast of that of the 

 Oligocene artiodactyle genus Anoplotherium. So marked, 

 indeed, is the general similarity of the two structures as to lead 

 the author to remark that "if cerebral anatomy be of any 

 systematic value, the view that Anoplotherium and Orycteropus 

 arose from a common, though necessarily remote, ancestry 

 can hardly be doubted." 



The pig-like Anthracotheriidce of the Miocene or Oligocene 

 strata of the Bugti Hills, Baluchistan, form the subject of a 

 preliminary communication from Mr. C. Forster-Cooper, pub- 

 lished in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 8, 

 vol. xii. pp. 514-22. These are referred to several new species 

 and one new genus. Personally the present writer is much 

 interested in the reference of one of these to Hemimeryx, a genus 

 established by himself, with a certain degree of trepidation, 

 some thirty years ago, on the evidence of a single upper molar 

 tooth from the Siwaliks of the Punjab. The great numerical 

 abundance of members of the anthracothere group, especially of 

 the genus Brachyodus, is a notable feature of the fauna of the 

 Bugti beds. 



In connection with the above reference may be made to a 

 note by Mr. Guy Pilgrim in the Records of the Geological Survey of 

 India, vol. xliii. pp. 74 and 75, amending the generic designations 

 of certain Bugti mammals. The most interesting item in con- 

 nection with the Bugti fauna is, however, the description by 

 Mr. Forster-Cooper (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, vol. xii. pp. 

 376-81) of a gigantic perissodactyle ungulate, which must 

 apparently have exceeded an ordinary elephant in bulk. Un- 

 fortunately the generic name Thaumastotherinm, proposed in 

 the original description, proved to be pre-occupied, and it was 

 accordingly replaced later on in the same volume by Balu- 

 chitherium, with the specific affix osborni. The skull and 

 dentition of this monster are not yet known, certain jaws and 

 molars described as Paraceratherium bugtiense, which are of 

 a rhinoceros-like type, being relatively small in comparison with 

 the huge dimensions of the vertebrae and limb-bones. Never- 



