SOME AMERICAN MONSTERS. 



151 



elaborated or highly developed parts which we see in such 

 animals to-day. Thus the proboscis of the elephant is a greatly 

 elongated nose ; in other words, the elephant is highly " special- 

 ised " in that direction, whereas our Dinoceras had no proboscis, 

 or only a very slight one. 



Again, the six remarkable bony protuberances of the skull 

 served to some extent as horns, and probably were covered 

 with thick bosses of skin, and did not support true horns 



Fig. 43. — Skull ai Dinoceras mirabile. (After Marsh.) 

 like those of our modern oxen and other ruminants. Speaking 

 of these protuberances, Professor Marsh says, " None of the 

 covering of these elevations, or horn-cores, has, of course, been 

 preserved ; yet a fortunate discovery may perhaps reveal their 

 nature by the form of a natural cast, as the eyeball of the 

 Oreodon is sometimes thus clearly indicated in the fine 

 Miocene matrix which envelops these animals." It looks rather 

 as if we have here an early stage in the evolution of horns, 



