DINOTIIEUIUM. 190 



without legs and with anterior pinniform extremities or fins ; and their view is now generally 

 adopted. According to them, in short, it was a gigantic Dugong with inferior incisors developed 

 into reversed tusks, like those of the Walrus, only developed from the under incisors instead of from 

 the upper canines. As their form and appearance are the same, so doubtless was their purpose : 

 viz., to support the animal's head upon the shore, or to help it in climbing up out of the 

 water. They may also have been of use in tearing up and exposing the roots of aquatic plants for 

 its food. 



It would appear to have'been at least as large as the Elephant, and probably had a round, 

 long, and plump body like the Manatee ; but as nothing but teeth and bones of the head have yet 

 l)oen found, any expression of opinion on these points is mere conjecture. 



It was from the Epplesheim beds near Hesse Darmstadt, now ascertained to belong to the 

 miocene epocli, that the fossil which revealed this extraordinary animal to us was first obtained. 

 It was a lower jaw of enormous size, which Cuvier described as a portion of a " Tapir Gigantesque," 

 afterwards named Dinotherium giganteum by Kaup. Since then portions of the head and teeth 

 have been found in miocene deposits in various parts of Europe, Germany, France, and Switzerland. 

 It has also been found in Perim Island in the Gulf of Cambay, and Prof. Owen in 1843 indicated 

 the existence of a species D. Indicuii in the Sevalik beds in India ;* but he makes no allusion to 

 this while subsequently specifying other localities in his " Palaeontology." 



IlALiTHKKirji, Kiiup. The Halitherium is an extinct genus of Sirene, of which several species 

 existed in the time of the later tertiaries in Germany, Franco, and Italy. ' Montpelier, Angers, 

 Beaucaire, Etampes, Longjumeau, and Pezenas, have furnished remains. 



A nimiber of other genera have been projjosed upon remains which, according to Giebel, are 

 referable to species of this genus. There is Christol's Metaxytherium, Meyer's Halianassa, Kaup's 

 IIalytherium and Pygmeodon, Bruno's Pontotherium and Cheirotheriim, and Gervais's Trachy- 

 THERiUM. He refers them all to four species of Halitheriiun. 



M.VNATEE. (Map 51.) The Manatee, or Lamantin, and the Dugong, or Halicore, arc the only 

 SiRENiA now in existence. Three or four species are known of the former, and two of the latter, 

 and, according to Harlan, another species of the former (now extinct) existed formerly in Mary- 

 land ; remains which he refers to it having been found in the tertiary beds of that district. The 

 Manatee inhabits, although it is not absolutely confined to, the Atlantic ; and the Dugong lives in 

 the Pacific. 



Until of late years our chief knowledge of the Manatee was derived from specimens of the 

 species from the other side of the Atlantic, but our intercourse with West Africa has latterly so 

 much increased, that specimens of the M. Senegalensis are no longer so rare, and manj- questions 

 (as, for instance, the nimaber of its cervical vertebra;, now ascertained be}'ond doubt to be six), which 

 anatomists and physiologists had been discussing in the dark, are now known from that source. 

 This West African species is about eight feet in length. 



Although usually said to be confined to the Atlantic, its range extends from Senegal round 

 the Cape of Good Hoj)e, and it has been found as far north on the other side of the Continent 

 as Quillimane, in Mozambique, where it is named by the Portuguese, " peixe mulhinj." It lives more 

 especially about the mouths of rivers, where the sea-weeds on which it feeds are more abundant. 



* Owen iu "Annals of Nat. Hist.' vol. xi. 7, 184.3. 



