io;2 THE UNGULA TES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



of them had four toes to each fore-foot. Rhinoceroses are, therefore, even more 

 ancient animals than tapirs. 



Mention has already been made of a rhinoceros from Greece, which was closely 

 allied to the common living African species; but there were also several other ex- 

 tinct Old- World kinds resembling the existing African rhinoceroses in the presence of 

 two horns and in the absence of front teeth, while in some cases there is evidence 

 to prove that their skins were of the smooth type. One of the most remarkable of 

 these species is the broad-nosed rhinoceros (/?. platyrhinus) from the Siwalik 

 Hills at the foot of the Himalayas, which was an enormous animal, with upper 

 molar teeth resembling in structure those of Burchell's rhinoceros, although 

 the last one was of the ordinary triangular shape. The other species, with 

 molar teeth of similar type, is the woolly rhinoceros (R. antiquitatis} , so called from 

 the thick coat of woolly hair with which its body was covered. Skeletons, bones, 

 and teeth of this species have been found in the cavern and other superficial de- 

 posits of the greater part of Europe, including England, while entire carcasses occur 

 frozen in the ice of the Siberian ' ' tundra. ' ' From these frozen specimens it has 

 been ascertained not only that the skin was covered with woolly hair, but likewise 

 that it was devoid of the permanent folds characterizing the Asiatic species. The 

 horns of the woolly rhinoceros appear to have rivaled in size those of the living 

 African Burchell's rhinoceros. From the structure of their upper molar teeth it 

 may be inferred that both the broad-nosed and the woolly rhinoceros were grass 

 eaters. In Siberia, however, portions of needles of conifers and of twigs of other 

 trees have been found in the interstices of the molar teeth of the latter; from 

 which it has been assumed that the animal was a branch eater. It is, however, 

 quite probable that while in Siberia it may have been compelled from lack of its 

 proper food to take to feeding upon leaves and twigs, yet that in the more southern 

 portion of its range it resembled its allies in being entirely a grass eater. 



During the Pleistocene period there were three other species of two-horned 

 rhinoceroses without front teeth inhabiting England and other parts of Europe, 

 which had upper molar teeth of the general type of those of the common African 

 species, although their skulls were very different. Of these the Leptorhine rhi- 

 noceros {R. leptorhinus) and the Megarhine rhinoceros (R. megarhinus) are found in 

 the brick earths of the Thames valley and other superficial deposits; while the 

 Etruscan rhinoceros {R. etruscus) occurs in the somewhat older ' ' forest bed ' ' of 

 the Norfolk coast, and likewise in the upper Pliocene beds of Italy and France. 

 The Iveptorhine and Megarhine species have tall-crowned cheek-teeth, and (as 

 shown in the illustration on p. 1071) are characterized by the presence of a vertical 

 bony partition in the skull dividing the two chambers of the cavity of the nose. In 

 this respect they resemble the woolly rhinoceros; a rudiment of the same feature 

 also occurring in the living Javan rhinoceros. The Etruscan rhinoceros, on the 

 other hand ; has shorter-crowned cheek-teeth, and no such bony septum in the nasal 

 cavity. That all these three species browsed on leaves and twigs may be pretty 

 confidently asserted from the structure of their upper molar teeth; while a carcass 

 found embedded in the ice of Siberia belonging to either the Leptorhine or the Meg- 

 arhine species, shows that these had smooth skins like the living rhinoceroses of 



