253 



ANNALl^ iYA'lV YORK ACIDILMY OF SCIENCES 



Besides these surviving groups of ruminants, there are several groups 

 which have not survived. The anthracotheres are one of the earliest of 

 these specialized races; I have elsewhere''® detailed the data upon which 

 may be predicated a North Asiatic center of dispersal for this group. 

 The living hippopotami sliow a modicum of resemblances to this type, 

 which may mean that they are derived from some early members of it. 

 Their present habitat is Ethiopian; but in ^;he Pliocene and Pleistocene 



their range was far to the Jiorthward- 



-even as far as England on one 



//// Jii'ppopotaini / 



Mo(^ern Mifpo^ 



Fig. 26. — Distribution of the Anthracotheres and Hippopotiuni 



The Anthracotheres were a large and widely dispersed group in the Oligocene and 

 Miocene, especially in the Old World, but found also in the Oligocene of North America. 

 The Hippopotami apix'ar to bo specialized survivors from the same stock ; they are con- 

 fined to the Old World and their range has been greatly restricted since Pliocene and 

 Pleistocene. 



hand and northern India on the other. While the present distribution 

 of the large hippopotamus is Central Africa, smaller and more primitive 

 precursors have been stranded on the one side in West Africa, on the 

 other (now extinct) in Madagascar and also found refuge in the Mediter- 

 ranean islands until the Pleistocene. (The aquatic habits of the hippo- 



s' Bull. A. M. N. II., vol. xxvl, pp. 1-7. 1009. 



