Animals Before Man 



Tliough so mucli like hogs in general appear- 

 ance, these animals had great pointed canines, 

 and some of the grinders very similar to those 

 of flesh-eaters, the character of the teeth indi- 

 cating that the elotheres were truly omnivorous. 

 Very often there are little grooves cut around 

 the bases of the canines, just such as might be 

 made by sawing a string back and forth around 

 a piece of soft wood, and for a long time the 

 reason for the presence of these grooves re- 

 mained a puzzle. 



Finally it was suggested that the elotheres 

 were root -eaters, and that in gnibbing for 

 food the slender rootlets, covered Avith dirt, 

 worked around the bases of the teeth and in 

 course of time wore the little grooves they 

 now bear. 



During the White Kiver period, small, three- 

 toed horses {Mesohippus) were not uncommon, 

 and although they were no larger than a small 

 sheep, yet it is not difficult to recognize in them 

 the likeness to a horse. 



The ancestors of the llamas were here, too, 

 represented by the genus Poehr other ium^ as 



242 



