AMERICAN GEOLOGISTS AND NATURALISTS. 31 



be invited to attend the present session of the Association, and 

 to participate in its proceedings. 



Prof. Renwick, Ml-. Nuttall, and Dr. Hayden of BaUimore, 

 were recommended as members of the Association. 



Dr. Harlan exhibited models of tlie fossil remains of the Di- 

 notherium giganteum. 



The first specimen presented to the view of the Association, was 

 the cast of a small model of the Dinotherium giganteum, or the great 

 fossil Tapir of Cuvier — the only model of the kind, which, as far 

 as Dr. Harlan is aware, has yet reached America. The Paris Gar- 

 den of Plants possesses a model of the scull, of the size of nature, 

 which is sold by the German naturalists, Messrs. Klipstein and 

 Kaup, for $100. The dimensions of this scull are four feet in length, 

 three feet in width, and two feet in height. In peculiarity of struc- 

 ture and colossal dimensions, the 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 scull 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 obser- 

 vation 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, DinotJteritim 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, demonstrates 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 consti- 

 tuted its principal nourishment. A correct notion of the enormous 

 dimensions 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 phalanx, presents so close an analogy to that of 



