901 



RHINOCEROS. 



RHINOCEROS. 



602 



is much the same in . Sumalrensii. In R. Indicia this forward 

 inclination is still more remarkable, although the difference of the 

 two lines is less in the proportion of 21 to 25, on account of the 

 extreme height of this occipital surface. In all the fossil skulls, on 

 the contrary, the occipital surface is strongly inclined backwards, and 

 the distance from the nose to the crest much longer than that from 

 the nose to the condyles. It would seem, says Cuvier in continuation, 

 that in some fossil individuals the two horns did not touch each 

 other ; but in one from the neighbourhood of Rugby, which Cuvier 

 saw in the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, and of which Mrs. Buckland 

 made a drawing for his work, he is of opinion that the horns touched, 

 for the discs on which they were seated are confounded in one rugose 

 surface. 



Skull of Fossil Rhinoceros. (Cuvier.) 

 a, proBle ; 6, seen from below. 



a. Crown of a siith molar, but little worn, of a Fossil Rhinoceros ; t, molar 

 of a Fossil Rhinoceros, much worn, seen from above. 



The skulls of the group of fossil rhinoceroses which have no bony 

 septum niarium much resemble that of R. bicornit. As compared 

 with the cranium of the ordinary fossil rhinoceros, which has the 

 bony septum, the cerebral part of the skull is less prolonged and less 

 thrown backwards; the orbit is placed above the fifth molar; the 

 nasal bones terminate in a free point, and are not attached to the 

 intermaxillary bones by a vertical septum ; the intermaxillaries are 

 much less prolonged and of a different conformation, offering none of 

 the characters which render the other fosail skulls of this genus so 

 remarkable. But though the skulls without the bony septum approach 

 more to that of the Jt. bicornit than of any other living species, there 

 are notwithstanding several differences. The bones of the nose in 

 the last mentioned fossils are delicate, straight, and pointed ; whilst 

 those of R. bicornii are very thick and convex ; the intermaxillaries 

 of the fossil are much larger than those of R. bicornii, and the 

 zygomatic arch is shorter and more convex towards the top ; more- 

 over there is a deeper depression between the part which supports the 

 second horn and that which elevates itself to form the occipital crest. 



The fossil rhinoceroses furnished with incisor teeth were much 

 smaller than any known species, living or fossil. 



The following fossil species have been recorded : R. tichorinus, 

 Cuv. ; R. incirivut, Cuv.; S. leptorhinut, Cuv. ; R. minutut, Cuv. ; 

 R. tlattu, Croiz. and Job. ; R. pachyrhinui, Cuv. ; R, hypselorhinut, 

 Kaup. ; R. Goldfutii, Kaup. ; R. leptodon, Kaup. 



Two of these species are British, R. lichoriniu and R. leptorhinus. 

 In his 'British Fossil Birds and Mammals,' Professor Owen has 

 described and distinguished these two species. 



R. tichorinut, the Two-Horned Tichorine Rhinoceros, belongs to 

 Cnvicr's group with a closed septum narium. The first notice of the 

 fossil remains of the genus Rhinoceroi occurs in a curious old tract 



entitled 'Chartham News, or a brief relation of some strange bones there 

 lately digged up in some grounds of Mr. John Somuer of Canterbury.' 

 In this little work, which was printed and published in London in. 

 1669, ia an account of fossil bones found in digging a well at Chartham. 

 These remains are now in the collection of the British Museum, and 

 evidently belong to 7?. tichorinus. Remains of this species have been 

 found very generally dispersed over the British Islands. " Although 

 the remains of the great Tichorine Rhinoceros," says Professor Owen, 

 "have not been found in such abundance in the caves, the unstrati- 

 fied drift, and the post-pliocene fresh-water deposits of Britain, as 

 those of its more gigantic contemporary the Mammoth, the two- 

 horned pachyderm seems to have been as extensively distributed 

 over the land which now constitutes our island. The works of con- 

 tinental palaeontologists demonstrate that thia Rhinoceros was 

 similarly associated with the Mammoth in the more recent deposits of 

 France, Germany, and Italy." 



The most remarkable specimens of this rhinoceros have been dis- 

 covered in the northern latitudes of Asia. Twenty years previous 

 to the discovery of the mammoth enveloped in ice [ELEPHANT], a 

 Tichorine Rhinoceros had been discovered under the same circum- 

 stances. The following is Professor Owen's translation of Pallas's 

 account of this discovery : 



" I ought here to mention an interesting discovery, which I owe to M. 

 Le Chevalier de Bril. Certain Jakoutzki hunting this winter" (1771-2) 

 "near Viloui, found the body of a great unknown beast. The Sieur 

 Ivan-Argounof, inspector of Zimovia, caused to be transmitted to the 

 Prefecture of the province of Jakoutzk, the head, a fore foot, and a 

 hind foot of the animal, the whole of which were in an excellent 

 state of preservation. He says in his ' Memoir," dated the 1 7th of 

 last January," (1772), " ' that they found, in the month of December, 

 the animal dead, and already much decomposed, at about forty versts 

 above Zimovie' de Vilouiskoe, on the sand of the bank, at the distance 

 of one toise from the water and four toises from another higher and 

 more precipitous escarpment : it was about half buried in the frozen 

 sand. They took its dimensions on the spot : it was three and three 

 quarters Russian ells' (aunes de Russie, about eleven and a half 

 English feet) ' in length, and they estimated its height at three and a 

 half ells. The body of the animal, still retaining its corpulency,' 

 (encore dans toute sa grosseur) ' was clothed with its skin, which 

 resembled leather; but it was so far decomposed that they were 

 unable to bring away more than the head and the feet. These I 

 saw at Irkoutsk ; they seemed to me, at the first view, to belong to 

 a Rhinoceros, which had been in full vigour. The head, especially, 

 wag very recognisable, because it was covered by its skin. The skin 

 had preserved all its exterior organisation, and one could see upon it 

 many short hairs ' (on y apercevoit plusieurs polls courts). ' The 

 eyelids and eyelashes even had not entirely fallen into decay. I 

 saw a substance in the cavity of the skull ; and here and there, 

 beneath the skin, were the remains of the putrified flesh. I remarked 

 on the feet the very obvious remains of the tendons and cartilages, 

 where the skin was wanting. The head had lost its horn, and the 

 feet their hoofs. The situation of the horn, the fold of integument 

 which surrounded it, and the separation ' (of the toes ?) ' which existed 

 in the fore feet and hind feet are certain proofs of the animal being a 

 Rhinoceros.' I have given an account of this singular discovery in 

 the ' Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg,' and refer my 

 readers to that work to save repetition. They will there see the 

 reasons in proof that a Rhinoceros has been able to penetrate near 

 the Lena in high northern latitudes, and the circumstances that have 

 led to the discovery in Siberia of the remains of so many strange 

 animals." 



One of the most remarkable points in this relation is the fact of 

 thia animal possessing short hairs, which probably, like those of the 

 Mammoth, served as a protection against the cold, to which it was 

 subject in a northern climate. 



" Although the molar teeth of the Rhinoceroi licliorinua present a 

 specific modification of structure, it is not such as to support the 

 inference that it could have better dispensed with succulent vegetable 

 food than its existing congeners 1 ; and we must suppose therefore that 

 the well-clothed individuals who might extend their wanderings north- 

 ward during a brief but hot Siberian summer, would be compelled to 

 migrate southward to obtain their subsistence during winter. Plants 

 might then have existed with longer periods of foliation than those 

 which now grow." (Owen.) 



R. leptorhimtt, Leptorhine Two-Horned Rhinoceros. Professor Owen 

 has pointed out that the remains of this rhinoceros are frequently 

 met with in the British Islands, though not so commonly as the last. 

 A tooth from the upper jaw and other remaiua of this species have been 

 found in the tertiary clay at Walton in Essex. Teeth have also been 

 procured from the fresh-water beds near Cromer, on the coast of 

 Norfolk. On the habits of this creature Professor Owen remarks : 

 " The habits of the less robuat and less formidably armed species no 

 doubt differed from those of the Tichorine Rhinoceros, which is more 

 extensively distributed over England. Some naturalists have recog- 

 nised different habits in the throe or four species of Rhinoceros now 

 living in Africa, and which differ from each other in form and struc- 

 ture much less than did the extinct Leptorhiue and Tichorine 

 j Rhinoceroses of Europe." 



