480 THE RESTORATION OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 



The oft-asked question, How long ago did these animals live? is one 

 difficult to answer, the more that the discrepancy between the various 

 estimates that have been made as to the age of the earth or of various 

 portions of its crust are so great that they seem little more than mere 

 guesses. The shortest estimate, that by Professor Newcomb, is ten 

 million years; the longest, six billion. But, following the more con- 

 servative figures, we ma}^ say that the Dinosaurs (terrible lizards) lived 

 from fifteen million to six million vearsago, while since the beginning 

 of the Eocene, when the mammals began to gain the ascendency, some- 

 where between three million and four million five hundred thousand 

 3^ears have elapsed. 



Cuvier was probably the first to make a restoration of an}^ extinct 

 animal that was more than a mere guess, as he was tiie first to place 

 such a restoration on the firm basis of scientific fact and deduction. 

 These restorations of Cuvier's. figured on plate 147 of the celebrated 

 "Ossemens Fossiles," were of several species of hoofed quadrupeds 

 whose remains were found in the quarries of Montmartre and to which 

 Cuvier had !q)plied the names of Anoplotherium (weaponless beast)^ 

 and Pal;et)thcriuni (ancient beast). Since their publication they have 

 been, with occasional slight modifications, copied far and wide, and 

 to-dav even no well-considered text-))0()k of palaeontology is quite 

 complete without them, although, curiously enough, while the figures 

 are duly ascribed to Cuvier, no one seems to think it worth while to 

 give the exact reference to the time and place of their publication.'^ 



The deductions made by Cuvier from the bones of the Anoplother- 

 ium may serve as a good example of the manner in which the external 

 appearance of an animal may be inferred from its internal structure. 

 From the length of the tail and appearance of the bones of the feet he 

 supposed the animal to have been more or less aquatic in habit; and, 

 judging from its habit of swimming and diving, he went on to reason 

 that ''Anoplotherium would have the hair smooth like that of the 

 otter; perhaps its skin was even half naked. It is not likeh' that it 

 had long ears, which would be inconvenient in its aquatic life." But, 



^Literally, the weaponless beast, having neither claws, horns, nor large canines; 

 and the ancient beast. Scientific men are often taken to task because so many ani- 

 mals have no common, or jiopular, names, the public forgetting that such can only 

 be applied to animals that are well or commonly known. The scientific name of 

 an animal is simply a tag or label attached to it by which it may be known, not 

 merely where English is spoken, but the world over, and that they are no more 

 difficult to understand or pronounce than so-called popular names is shown by the 

 fact that many of them, such as elephant, boa constrictor, rhinoceros, etc., have been 

 adopted as common names. Scientific names, it may be said, usually contain a ref- 

 erence to some character possessed by the animal to which they are applied. 



^This reference is as follows: Kecherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles ou Ton retablit 

 les caracteres de plusieurs animaux dont les revolutions du globe ont detruit les 

 especes. Par Georges Cuvier. Atlas, Tome Premier, Planche 147. The reproduc- 

 tion herewith given is from the fourth edition, published in 1836. 



