MASTODONS. SG"? 



whether elephant or mastodon, also existed in Australia. The 

 mastodon is also known from South America (M. Andium, M. Hum- 

 boldtii). 



Of the recognised true proboscideans the genus Dinotherium 

 may be considered to represent the earliest type, inasmuch as its 

 remains are thus far known only from the Miocene and Mio-Plio- 

 cene deposits (Europe and Asia). 



Extinct Animals related to the Proboscidea. — Numerous 

 extinct animal forms, of both small and gigantic dimensions, ex- 

 hibiting more or less intimate relationsliip with the Proboscidea, 

 have been described from the Eocene deposits of both Europe and 

 America. Among the best known of these is the genus Coryphodon 

 (order Amblypoda of Cope), with about fourteen species, vegetable 

 feeders, ranging in size from the dimensions of a tapir to that of an 

 ox, and, judging from the skeleton, most nearly resembling among 

 living animals the bear in outward appearance. The structure of 

 the foot was largely that of the elephant. All the species are 

 Lower Eocene (England, France, America). Belonging to the same 

 order are the American Dinocerata, animals equalling or surpassing 

 in size the modern elephants, to which they bore many points of 

 structural resemblance. The uj^per jaw was provided with a pair 

 of vertically descending canine tusks. The type genus of this 

 group is Uintatherium, and seemingly the other forms which have 

 been described under Loxolophodon, Eobasileus, Dinoceras, and 

 Tinoceras also belong here. Some twenty-nine species are known, 

 all of them of the Middle Eocene period. — A form uniting the 

 coryphodons with the Dinocerata has recently been discovered by 

 Professor Scott in the Bridger (Middle Eocene) beds of Wyoming, . 

 and named Elachoceras parvum.^^* 



The members of the amblypod order of Mammalia, as well as 

 the more recent Proboscidea and Hyracoidea (conies), are traced 

 back by Professor Cope to a type of ungulate animals which largely 

 preceded these in the order of their development, and which are 

 by that naturalist considered to represent the primitive hoofed 

 forms whence the modern even- and odd-toed ungulates, the Artio- 

 dactyla (deer, ox, camel, &c.) and Perissodactyla (horse, rhinoceros, 

 tapir), ultimately descended. The teeth were tuberculated (of the 

 bunodont or hog type), and the feet largely plantigrade, provided 

 with five toes, both front and rear, constituting the generalised 



