April, 

 1893. 



STUDY OF MAMMALS DURING 1891. 



103 



the so-called median horn of the giraffe. Perhaps, however, the 

 most interesting portion of the whole memoir is that relating to th6 

 gigantic ruminants from the Pliocene of India, severally known as the 

 Sivathevium, Bmmatherinin and Hydaspithevium. These creatures, which 

 equalled a rhinoceros in bulk, were characterised by carrying large 

 and branching appendages on their enormous skulls, which probably 

 partook of the nature both of the antlers of the deer and of the horns 

 of the oxen. There has been much discussion as to the affinity of 

 these animals, some writers affiliating them with the antelopes, and 

 others with the giraffe ; but the author of the memoir before us so ably 

 advocates the latter view that the question may now be regarded as 

 finally decided. We may accordingly now look upon the giraffe 

 as the last survivor of an extensive family of ruminants, which, after 

 having included among its members the most gigantic representatives 

 of^the whole group, for some unknown reason suddenly disappeared 



Fig. 3. — Side view of tlie sliull of Samotherium. About 7 natural size. The horn-cores are 



provisionally restored. 



from the face of the earth, with the exception of the one species 

 which had obtained a footing on the African continent. 



It is a far cry from the mountains of Northern India, where the 

 remains of the Sivathere and its allies are entombed, to the pampas 

 of the Argentine and Patagonia ; but it is in the latter area where 

 the next most important advances have been made in the palaonto- 

 logical history of the Ungulate Mammals. For these discoveries we 

 are mainly indebted to Professor F. Ameghino, who has published 

 the results of his observations in a serial - started during the past year. 

 In these regions the extinct Ungulates seem to have run riot as 

 regards strangeness of form and dissimilarity of structure to any of 

 those found in the European area. Among the numerous types 

 described in the various papers by Professor Ameghino, great 

 interest attaches to the acquisition of the whole skeleton of an animal 

 described some years ago by Professor Flower from the evidence of the 



2 Revist. Argent. Hist. Nat., vol. i., 1891. 



