266 EXTINCT “MONSTERS 
Egyptian Lake Meeris. ‘Can it be possible,’ the reader may 
well ask, “that this skull once belonged to a creature which was 
the forerunner of Elephants?” Well, so it seems, although the 
differences are very great. The shape of the skull gives no sug- 
gestion at all of anything elephantine, nor does the large number of 
teeth with their sharp pointed ridges. The Mceritherium, accord- 
ing to Dr. Andrews,’ was about the size of a tapir, which it much 
resembled, and it probably frequented the marshes of the period 
4 
Fre. 102.—Skull and lower jaw of Tetrabelodon augustidens, from Middle 
Miocene of Sansan, France. (After C. W. Andrews.) 
(Middle Eocene), see Plate XLIV. The length of the skull is only 
about sixteen inches ; the limbs are partly known. The next beast, 
the Paleomastodon beadnelli was larger and more adapted to a 
terrestrial life. Its skull, shown in Fig. 101, was about three feet 
long, and now we see something really elephantine. The whole 
face, nose, and cheeks began to be pushed forward, its forehead 
slopes upward, and there is a large opening for the nose, the teeth 
1 Catalogue of the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayim Egypt. Published by 
Trustees of the British Museum. 
