167 



CHAPTER XXV. 



MULTUNGULA — PAL.^OTHERID.E NESODONTIDiE MACRAUCHENIA TAPIRS. 



PaLjEOTiiertb.e. This foiuilj' iis the antecedent race to, and partakes of the characters of both 

 the Tapir and Rhinoceros. It makes its appearance at the beginning of the tertiary ejjoch, when 

 neither Tapir, nor Rliinoceros, nor Horse existed, and these latter appear to succeed the Pal^other- 

 iBJE as their representatives. The family does not extend beyond the middle tertiary epoch, and 

 exactly here occur the first traces of the living genera which are allied to it and have replaced 

 it. It is as if these forms were developed out of it. 



The bones of the face furnish indications that the animals possessed a short proboscis, and 

 perhaps chiefly on that account they have usually been placed in the same family as the Tapirs ; 

 but if that is to be done, the Rhinoceros must follow, and as it is desirable to break the order up 

 into one or two families, I have followed Burmeister, and placed the Pal.t:otherid.e as a distiiu't 

 family beside its descendants. The genus PAL-iiOTiiEiiiuji was originally founded by Cuvier on 

 remains discovered in the eocene beds of the Paris basin ; and it and the Anoplotherh'm are better 

 known to the general public than most extinct species, from his restorations of the animal, having, 

 as it were, infused life into the dry bones, and placed the idea of it before their minds invested 

 \vith a local habitation, instead of leaving it, like most others, an empty abstraction and a name. 

 A number of species (ten or twelve in all) have been found in the older and middle tertiary 

 deposits of Middle Europe. 



Until the discovery of the miocene deposits of Nebraska, the Pal.^otherid.ts were supposed 

 to be confined to Europe. In these beds, however, have been discovered the remains of an animal 

 which undoubtedly belongs to the family, if not to the genus, and which is still more remarkable 

 than any species that have been found in the Old World. It is named Tit-^notherium by Leidy, 

 and well deserves its name, for although only portions of the skeleton have been found, if the animal 

 preserved the same relations of size in its parts as PAi.yEOTHERiuM magnum, it must have been 

 twice the height of the Rhinoceros of Java. Its head aluno must have been six feet in length. Dr. 

 Evans states of one specimen, " A jaw of this species was found, measuring, as it lay in its matrix, 

 five feet along the range of the teeth, but in such a friable condition that only a portion of it could 

 be dislodged."* And "a nearly entire skeleton of the same, animal was discovered in a similar 

 position, which measured, as it lay imbedded, eighteen feet in length and nine feet in heiglit."t 



In the same group, three or four other extinct genera are placed, viz., Lophiodon, Ciir. (eight 

 species), Coryphodon Car. (one species), Aktiiracotherium, Ci(r. (four species), which embrace 

 several other genera which by some are thought to have been proposed on insufficient grounds ; 

 such as Tapikotuerium, Paciiyxolopiius, Tapirulus, Listriodon, &c., &c. 



* LEmy, " Extiuct Fauiui of Nebraska," p. 77. + Leidy, up. cit. p. 78. 



