272 ON PLATYGONUS COMPRESSUS 



Conclusions. 



From the foregoing account, it will be seen that our animal pre- 

 sents an assemblage of characters not found in any other genus, 

 fossil or recent. From the form of the teeth, and the concealment 

 of the canines, it evidently tends towards the Tapiroids, and more 

 especially towards Sophiodon, and it should be numbered among 

 the aberrant forms of tliat group ; nevertheless, it differs from both 

 Tapirus and Sophiodon, in the very compressed and trenchant form 

 of the canines. The extreme narrowness of the worn face of the 

 superior canine, together with the oblique position of the tooth, 

 indicates a decussation with another narrow and pointed tooth of 

 the inferior maxilla. This structure is well adapted for piercing 

 and cutting soft substances, and manifests a strongly carnivorous 

 habit. This inference is not borne out by the form of the pre- 

 molars, but it must be remembered that the cutting form of those 

 teeth is always more developed in the lower jaw ; the structure of 

 the upper premolars in Dicotyles is very similar to that existing in 

 the present genus. The absence, however, of accessary tubercles 

 in the molars shows the suiline affinities indicated by some other 

 bones to have been quite feeble. 



The fragments of the cranium lead us to infer that that portion 

 was very much compressed laterally, with an anterior and posterior 

 expansion, the latter being much greater. The arch of the nasal 

 bones being complete, and extending far forwards, it is obvious that 

 the movable snout (if any) Avas extremely short. The malar bones 

 descended almost perpendicularly, looking forwards and outwards, 

 while the remains of the orbit of the eye show that organ to have 

 directed outwards and a little upwards. The flatness of the os 

 frontis and the approximation of the eyes continue to the upper 



