Fossil Tapir. ^l 



decay, tod imperfect for specific comparisons, the only perfect 

 skeleton of this animal known, being that in the museum of St 

 Petersburg, Russia. From observations that we have made on 

 the fossil elephant teeth, several years ago, and published in 

 vol. iii. of the Journ. Acad. Nat. Sciences of Philad. there can 

 be little doubt but that two distinct species at least once exist- 

 ed in North America. 



Specimens of the teeth and fragments of the skeleton of this 

 species abound in our cabinets both public and private ; more 

 particularly in the cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, of the Philosophical Society, &c. &c. The 

 Geological Society of Pennsylvania possesses an enormous 

 fossil osfimoris of this animal, found near Moorestown, New 

 Jersey. 



I have observed several specimens of elephant teeth, with 

 the enamel arranged like that of the African elephant, which 

 appeared to be fossilized ; two of these are in the museum at 

 Liverpool, one in my own collection. Their origin is uncer- 

 tain, and all such are considered as apocryphal by Baron 

 Cuvier. 



Genus Tapirus. 



T. mastodontoides, Harlati. 



^auna Americana, page 224. 



Loca^t^?/.— Big- bone-lick, state of Kentucky. 



This fossil molar tooth displays considerable ahalogy to that 

 of the " small fossil tapir"" of Cuvier, differing only in th^ 

 obliquity of the transverse eminences of the crown, and iti the 

 form of the disks of these, produced by detrition ; but as 

 subsequent and more extensive observation on the tapirs, in 

 the museum of the " Jardin des Plantes," at Paris, has Con-* 

 vinced us that similar differences in the form and direction of 

 the transverse eminences are displayed in the different teeth of 

 the same individual, we admit that little reliance is to be placed 

 on them, when regarded as specific characters. 



The molar teeth of the tapirs, kangaroo, and manatus, bear 

 cttftsiderable analogy with those of the mastodon ; they are co- 

 vered in a similar manner with enamel, and furnished alike 

 with transverse mamillary eminences in the young animal, 



Aa2 



