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Association of American Geologists. 179 
Dinotherium constitutes one of the most curious and interesting animals 
of an antediluvian Fauna. M. Klipstein, Professor in the University of 
Giessen, a few years since, discovered a perfectly preserved specimen of 
the skull on the borders of the Rhine. Baron Cuvier had many years 
previously described, in his Fossil Animals, some remains of this animal 
as allied to the genus Tapir. The fragments subjected to his observa- 
tion consisted only of two imperfect pieces of the lower jaw, and some 
molar teeth. From such data alone, he was able to represent them as 
belonging to two distinct species, Dinotherium giganteum and D. Cuvieri, 
and to estimate the size of the larger species at eighteen Paris feet, which 
was subsequently proved to be correct. In 1829, Mr. Kaup, director of 
the museum at Darmstadt, discovered and described numerous portions 
of this animal, all obtained from the same strata of the tertiary sand of 
Eppelsheim. 
The whole animal creation, fossil or recent, presents no parallel to the 
structure of the lower jaw and tusks of this animal. The anterior portions 
are recurved downwards, and from which depend two enormous tusks, in 
a direction downwards and backwards. The upper jaw is destitute of 
incisors. The configuration of the anterior nares and their vicinity, de- 
monstrates that the animal was supplied with a proboscis, and like the 
hippopotamus and tapir, the habits of the animal were evidently aquatic ; 
and the peculiar arrangement of the tusks was evidently adapted to the 
nature of the animal’s food and the means of attaining it—they would be 
very useful in unison with its powerful claws, in eradicating from the mud 
the thick and succulent roots of aquatic plants, which probably constitu- 
ted its principal nourishment. A correct notion of the enormous dimen- 
sions of this animal may be obtained by a view of the models of the tusk 
after nature, as well as by a series of the molars of one side of the lower 
jaw. It evidently attained a size far exceeding that of the hippopotamus 
of our day. 
The last or ungual phalange, presents so close analogy to that of the 
Manis or scaly ant-eater, that Cuvier, at first sight, referred this spe- 
cies to an animal of that genus, and named it Manis gigantea. In offer- 
ing you my own views of this peculiar specimen of a departed type, 
it should be stated that various notions exist among different naturalists, 
as to the real nature and habits of the animal in question. Some German 
naturalists place it among the Phoce. Blainville took it for a pachyder- 
Matous animal, closely allied to the elephant. Kaup considered that it 
might range as a fifth and last family of the class Edentata. Others re- 
ferred it to the herbivorous Cetacea, &c. &c. : 
Dr. H. also made some observations upon the remains formerly 
described by him as belonging to the “ Basilosaurus,” but which 
he is now satisfied, from the microscopic examinations of a section 
