EXTINCT RHINOCEROSES 1073 



Africa. The Deccan rhinoceros (R. deccanensis) and the Karnul rhinoceros (/?. kar- 

 nuliensis), from the superficial deposits of Southern India, indicate that smaller 

 representatives of the two-horned branch-eating group likewise inhabited that 

 country. . . . 



Reference has already been made to the occurrence in the Miocene deposits of 

 Europe of an extinct two-horned rhinoceros provided with upper and lower front 

 teeth, which was allied to the living Sumatran species. Throughout the middle 

 Tertiary rocks of Europe, as well as in the Pliocene and Miocene of India, there 

 are found, however, a number of rhinoceroses differing from any living species in 

 the total absence of horns, while in those cases where their limbs are known the 

 fore-feet were provided with four toes. Some of these animals were of very large 

 size, and all of them had molar teeth of the type of that represented in the upper 

 figure on p. 1051 (which belongs to one of the Indian species), and their jaws were 

 furnished with large front teeth. Moreover, in one of the Indian representatives 

 of this hornless group, the last molar tooth was of nearly the same form as that 

 in front of it, instead of being triangular. That all these species subsisted on 

 leaves a-nd boughs, may be inferred from the structure of their short-crowned 

 molar teeth; and it may be observed here that all the older Ungulates had short- 

 crowned cheek-teeth, adapted for champing twigs and leaves rather than for masti- 

 cating grass; whence it may be concluded that grassy plains are probably a 

 comparatively-recent feature in the history of our globe. Hornless rhinoceroses 

 also occur in the Tertiary deposits of North America, but at least the majority of 

 these resembled existing types in having but three toes on each fore-foot; while 

 their limbs were relatively shorter than in their Old- World allies, and their bodies 

 more elongated. Finally, there were certain other small rhinoceroses from the 

 lower Miocene of both Europe and the United states, in which the front of the 

 skull carried a very small pair of horns placed transversely instead of longi- 

 tudinally. 



The above are all the forms which can be included in the genus Rhinoceros. 

 There are, however, a number of allied extinct animals which connect the true 

 rhinoceroses with more generalized extinct types of Odd-Toed Ungulates. Such for 

 instance is the Amynodon, from the Miocene Tertiary of North America, which 

 was a rhinoceros-like animal with no horn, and the full typical number of forty-four 

 teeth. That is to say, there were three incisors, a tusk, and seven cheek-teeth on 

 each side of both jaws; the front teeth being like those of ordinary Mammals, and 

 not having the peculiarly-modified form presented by those of the true rhinoceroses. 

 Moreover the whole of the three upper molar teeth were alike; and none of them 

 had the processes projecting into the middle valley which are found in those of all 

 true rhinoceroses. Probably the Amynodon also occurred in the lower Miocene 

 and upper Eocene rocks of France. There were other allied types, but the above 

 example is sufficient to show that the earlier rhinoceroses were far less different 

 from tapirs and some extinct generalized forms to be noticed later on than are their 

 modern representatives. 



We must not, however, take leave of the Rhinoceros family without referring 

 to a most remarkable creature known as the elasinothere, which flourished during 

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