1 104 



THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



THE LEFT UPPER CHEEK-TEETH OF THE GREAT 

 (One-half natural size.) 

 (After Gaudry.) 



present century, nearly complete skeletons discovered in the gypsum quarries, near 

 Paris, were described by Cuvier. These palseotheres were tapir-Like animals, with 



three toes to each foot, 

 and molar teeth ap- 

 proximating to those of 

 anchithere in structure, 

 but having a somewhat 

 elongated neck. While 

 some of the species were 

 not taller than a sheep, 

 others must have fully 

 equalled the largest 

 tapirs in size. They probably resembled the tapirs in having a short proboscis to 

 the snout, and likewise in their general mode of life. The lophiodons are some- 

 what older animals, being mainly characteristic of the middle Eocene strata of 

 Europe. Some of them were as large as a rhinoceros; and their upper molar teeth 

 approximate to those of the tapirs having their outer columns conical, instead of 

 assuming the flattened form characteristic of the palaeotheres. The lower molars, 

 moreover, differ from those of the palaeotheres in having their transverse ridges 

 nearly straight instead of crescent-like; and the total number of teeth is only forty, 

 owing to the loss of the first premolar in each jaw. So far as known, the number 

 of toes to the feet was the same as in the tapirs; and while the true lophiodons 

 apparently indicate a group which died out without leaving any descendants, cer- 

 tain allied forms probably indicate the ancestral stocks of both the tapirs and the 

 rhinoceroses. 



In the Miocene period there existed in North America and the Bal- 

 and Chali- ^ ans cert ain gigantic rhinoceros-like Ungulates, which, while belonging 

 cotheres to the Odd-Toed group, were quite unlike any other forms, and ap- 

 proximated in bulk to the elephants. These titanotheres, as they are 

 called, had skulls somewhat like those of rhinoceroses, but furnished with a pair of 

 bony processes placed transversely in the 

 region of the nose, which were doubtless 

 furnished with horny sheaths during life. 

 The limbs were massive, and furnished 

 with four toes in front, and three behind, 

 one of the fore-feet being figured on p. 

 742. Some of the species had the full 

 number of forty-four teeth, placed in close 

 apposition to one another; but in others 

 the whole of the lower and one pair of the 

 upper incisors were wanting. The molar 

 teeth are of the type of those shown in the accompanying figure, and differ very 

 markedly from those of other Odd-Toed Ungulates; they consist of four columns, 

 of which the outer ones are flattened, and those on the inner side more or less 

 conical. The teeth are further remarkable for the extreme lowness of their crowns. 



yil 



TWO RIGHT UPPER MOLAR TEETH OF 

 PAL^OSYOPS. 

 (From Earle.) 



