330 PALAEONTOLOGY 



allied to and of the size of the tapir, in the lacustrine deposits 

 of the Montagne ISToir, near Issel, department of Aude in 

 Languedoc, The outer incisor of the lower jaw was shortened 

 to give room to the longer corresponding incisor above, as in 

 the tapir ; the canines offered the same proportional develop- 

 ment; but the three first molars (premolars) of the lower jaw 

 presented a more simple structure, having the crown com- 

 pressed, and forming two cones, the front one being the largest ; 

 — in short, a structure, the type of which is presented only by 

 the first of the three premolars (pz) in the genus Tapirus* 



Years elapsed ere Cuvier obtained clear evidence of the 

 structure of the upper molars of this new fossil Mammal. 

 Such detached teeth as had been obtained from the fresh- 

 water formations near Issel were referred, owing to the way 

 in which they departed from the type of the upper molar 

 teeth of the Tapir, to the genus Rhinoceros. This fact is 

 indicative of the annectant affinities of the Lophiodon in the 

 perissodactyle series, f Besides the character of form, the 

 upper molar series of Lophiodon differs, like the lower one, 

 from that in Tapirus, in the greater simplicity of the last two 

 premolars ; these teeth have a single cone on the inner side 

 in Lophiodon ; they have there two cones in Tapirus, forming 

 the inner terminations of two transverse ridges, as in the true 

 molars. These teeth in the Lophiodon differ from those in the 

 Tapirus in the greater fore-and-aft expanse of the outer 

 terminations of the transverse ridges, and the less depth of 

 the cleft between them : a more complete coalescence of those 

 parts causes a more entire outer wall of the crown, and com- 

 pletes the transition to the Rhinoceros type, towards which 

 the Pakeotherium offers the next step. 



Genus Pal/EOTIIekium, Cuv. — This extinct genus of quad- 

 ruped was restored (fig. 98) by Cuvier through a series of 

 admirably instructive steps, ultimately verified by a complete 



Ency. Brit., art. Odohtologt, p, 171, fig. 136, JJ 2. t ll,i, l> P 17<l 



