On the Dinotherium Giganteuvu 215 



tions of organization, as if, for example, we were to suppose that the animal 

 had the spinous processes of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae of an unheard 

 of length, and so capable of giving attachment to enormous muscles which 

 might freely support the head out of the water. The wholly aquatic mode 

 of life of this singular animal being once admitted, it remains to determine 

 what may have been its kind of nourishment. According to the form of its 

 teeth, except the tusks, it is very probable that the Dinotherium was herbi- 

 vorous ; and this opinion is justified by the form of the glenoid cavity, which 

 is entirely plane at its articulating part, as has been well remarked by M. 

 Kaup, and not hollowed into a deep cavity, as stated by M. de Blainville. 

 This proves that the jaw possessed a lateral motion, very advantageous in 

 the grinding of its food. On account of the disposition of the occipital con- 

 dyles, it was almost impossible for the animal to bend its head downwards, 

 that so it might procure nourishment which was situated on the ground, an 

 action which was moreover interdicted'to it by the direction of its two tusks ; 

 it must, therefore, have seized its food in the same manner as the elephant, 

 that is to say by means of a trunk. The existence of the trunk, which M. 

 de Blainville regards as at least doubtful, is however indicated on the cranium 

 by the great breadth and the disposition of the orifices of the nasal fossce : 

 lastly, it is also indicated by the disposition of the jaws, which* having 

 no incisor teeth, wherewith directly to seize its food, cannot even meet at 

 their anterior part, whilst they do so perfectly in the manatee. It might 

 however be possible, though it is not at all probable, that the animal may 

 have lived upon fisb, which supposition is in no degree incompatible with the 

 form of its teeth, although these differ very much from those of the dolphins, 

 cete, which are essentially ichtyophagous ; but this is one of those characters on 

 which we ought not to found a great deal, no more than that we should place 

 the Dinotherium in the genus tapir. Regarding the two tusks of the lower 

 jaw, they appear to Messrs Kaup and de Blainville, to subserve the animal 

 in turning up the soil, that it may thence procure the roots with which it was 

 probably nourished. I do not participate in this opinion ; these teeth rather 

 appear to me to have contributed simply to its defence, as we find to be the 

 case in elephants ; for if these teeth had been employed in the manner these 

 naturalists suppose, we should have found them in our specimen, much worn, 

 whilst thev are in a state of preservation which may be designated quite per- 

 fect. When the animal used them for the purpose I have alleged, it must 

 have struck from above downwards, and to this end must have previously 

 have much elevated its whole head, a circumstance which is likewise indicated 

 by the disposition of the occipital condyles, which shews that the animal could 

 easily raise its head till it made an angle of from fifty to sixty degrees with 

 the horizon. In conclusion, as to the place the Dinotherium should occupy 

 ill the class Mammalia, I believe that it forms a distinct family among the 

 Cetacea, and constitutes a link between the Pachyderma and the Cete. The 

 hippopotamus [amongst the Pachyderma would make the first step which 

 would conduct to this new family, as the otter constitutes with regard to the 

 Carnivora, the first step, which leads by the seals and the walrus to the 

 manatees. 



• If there bad been iuciilves In the upper jaw, they must have been very small. 



