II. 



Some Salient Points in the Study of Mammals 



during 1891. 



(Continued from page 39.) 



Passing on to fossil mammals, one of the most important and 

 interesting memoirs published during the year relates to the extinct 

 allies of the giraffe^ — an animal which, as most of our readers are 

 probably aware, now occupies a somewhat isolated position, being 

 the sole representative of a distinct family. In the Pliocene epoch 

 there appear, however, to have existed a number of ruminants more 

 or less closely related to the giraffe, and it is the object of the 

 memoir quoted to show that this relationship is even more intimate 

 than had hitherto been considered to be the case. 



Giraffes themselves, it need scarcely be observed, are now confined 

 to Africa, but there is abundant evidence to show that they were 

 formerly spread over Southern Europe, Persia, India, and China. 

 One of their nearest extinct allies seems to be the Samotherhim, from 

 the Pliocene of the Isle of Samos and Persia, in which the males (Fig. 

 3) had short, upright horn cores, not improbably covered with skin 

 in the living condition, while the females were hornless. In some 

 respects, however, Samotherinm shows decided signs of affinity with 

 the Deer-family, as represented by the Elk ; this being especially 

 manifest by the equality in the length of the fore and hind limbs, and 

 the comparatively straight profile of the middle part of the skull, and 

 we thus have an interesting confirmation of the view which has been 

 long current as to the kinship of the giraffe with the deer. Of 

 especial interest is the proof afforded by this animal that a com- 

 paratively small ruminant from the Pliocene of Greece, known as 

 Pal(Eotvagus, and hitherto regarded as an aberrant antelope, is also a 

 near cousin of the giraffes, of which group it is the smallest known 

 representative. 



The connecting link between the Giraffe and the Samothere 

 is formed by the well-known Helladothere, of the Grecian Pliocene, in 

 which the fore limbs were longer than the hinder, while all the known 

 examples of the skull were unprovided with antlers or horns, although 

 the middle of its frontal region has a prommence corresponding to 



1 Forsyth-Major, Proc. Zool Soc, 1S91, pp. 315-326. 



