344 



PALEONTOLOGY 



link conuecting Palceotherium with. Rhinoceros; the Hippo- 

 therium linked on Paloplotherium with Equus. 



One of the most extraordinary of the extinct forms of the 

 cetaceous order has been restored from fossil remains dis- 

 covered in formations of the miocene age in Europe and North 

 America. The teeth of this carnivorous whale, for which the 

 generic name Zeuglodon seems now to be generally accepted, 

 were first described and figured by the mediaeval palaeontolo- 

 gist Scilla, in his treatise entitled De Corporibus Marinis 

 (4to, 174-7, tab. xii., fig. 1), and have since given rise to 

 various interpretations. The originals were obtained from 

 the miocene strata at Malta, and are now preserved in the 

 Woodwardian museum at Cambridge. 



Th.e remains of a gigantic species of the same genus, dis- 

 covered by Dr. Harlan in miocene formations of Arkansas, 

 Mississippi, were described and figured by him as those of a 

 reptile, under the name of Basilosaums* Teeth of a smaller 



species, discovered byM. 

 Grateloup, in miocene 

 beds of the Gironde and 

 Herault, were ascribed 

 by him also to a reptile, 

 under the name of Squa- 

 lodon.-\ In 1839 Dr. Har- 

 lan brought over his spe- 

 cimens of Basilosaurus 

 to London, and submit- 

 ted them to the writer's 

 inspection, by whom 

 they were determined to be mammalian and cetaceous. The 

 entire skeleton has since been obtained from miocene deposits 

 iu Alabama, revealing a length of body of about 70 feet. The 



* Medical and Physical Researches, p. 333. 

 f Act. Soc. Linn, de Bordeaux, 1840, p. 201. 



Fig. 108. 



Deciduous and permanent teeth of the Zeuy- 



lodon. 



