HY.ENODON 839 



them to be Ruminants, possessed no other evidence of the 

 Microtlicrium than of the Dichobune murina and Dichobune 

 obliqua, Cuv., he would have had the same grounds for refer- 

 ring the Microtheria, as the Dichobunes, to the genus Tragulus 

 or Moschus (les Chevrotains) ; but the entire dentition of the 

 upper jaw of the species Anoplothcrium murinum and A. 

 obliquum, referred by Cuvier to his genus Dichobune, must be 

 known before the existence of Euminants in the upper eocene 

 gypsum of Paris can be inferred. 



No doubt the affinity of these small Anoplotherioids to the 

 Chevrotains was very close. Let the formative force be trans- 

 ferred from the small upper incisors to the contiguous canines, 

 and the transition would be effected. We know that the 

 ruminant stomach of the species of Tragulus is simplified by 

 the suppression of the psalterium or third bag. The stomach 

 of the small Anoplotherioids, whilst preserving a certain degree 

 of complexity, might have been somewhat more simplified. 

 The certain information which the gradations of dentition dis- 

 played by the above-cited extinct species impart, testifies to 

 the artificial character of the order Ruminantia of the modern 

 systems, and to the natural character of that wider group of 

 even-toed hoofed animals for which has been proposed the 

 term Aktiodactyla* 



Genus Hy^enodon, Laiz. — With the delicate and beautiful 

 Herbivora of the upper eocene and lower miocene periods, 

 there coexisted carnivorous quadrupeds, which, to judge by 

 the character of their flesh-cutting teeth (carnassials), were 

 more fell and deadly in their destructive task than modern 

 wolves or tigers. Of these old extinct Carnivora a species 

 of the remarkable genus Hyccnodon, of about the size of a 

 leopard, has left its remains in the upper eocene of Hordwell, 

 Hampshire. Fig. 104 shows the dentition of the under jaw of 

 another species of the same genus from miocene beds at 



* Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. iv., 1847. 



