319 



DINOTHEHir:.T. 



DINOTHERIUM. 



3.30 



Skull of Dinolherii'm yigtmtcutn, seen from above. 



Skull of the s.ime, seen from below. 



Portion! of the kull of the name ; n, posterior part of 'the skull, seen from 

 below, showing the occipital condyle and foramr-n, &c. ; 6, roof of the mouth 

 and molar teeth ; the interval between the rows widening from before 



backwards. 



In this view of the subject it becomes of importance to see what 

 were the remains which were found in the strata of sand at Epples- 

 heim, near Altzey, about 12 leagues south of Mayeuce, in company 

 with those of the Dinotherium. 



Dr. Kaup, in his 'Description d'Ossemens Fossiles' (Darmstadt, 

 1832), gives the following number of species : Dinotherium, 2 ; 

 Tapirtts, 2 ; larger than living species. Chalicotherium (allied to 

 Tapirs), 2 ; Rhinoceros, 2 ; Tetracavlodou (allied to Mastodon), 1 ; 

 Hippotherium (allied to Horse), 1 ; Sus, 3 ; fclis (some as large as a 

 Lion), 4 ; Machairodus (allied to Bear, Vrus citltridens) ; Gulo 

 (Glutton), 1 ; Agnotherimn (allied to Dog, but as large as a Lion), 1. 



Dr. Buckland, iu the work and in the edition above quoted, after 

 giving a description of the tusks of the Dinotherium, thus proceeds : 

 " I shall confine my present remarks to this peculiarity in the position 

 of the tusks, and endeavour to show how far these organs illustrate 

 the habits of the extinct animals in which they are found. It is 

 mechanically impossible that a lower jaw, nearly four feet long, 

 loaded with such heavy tusks at its extremity, could have been 

 otherwise than cumbrous and inconvenient to a quadruped living on 

 dry land. No such disadvantage would have attended this structure 

 in a large animal destined to live in water; and the aquatic habits of 

 the family of Tapirs, to which the Dinotherium was most nearly 

 allied, render it probable that, like them, it was an inhabitant of 

 fresh-water lakes and rivers. To an animal of such habits, the weight 

 of the tusks sustained in water would have been no source of incon- 

 venience ; nnd, if we suppose them to be employed as instruments for 

 raking and grubbing up by the roots large aq"uatic vegetables from 

 the bottom, they would, under such service, combine the mechanical 

 powers of the pick-axe with those of the horse-harrow of modern 

 husbandry. The weight of the head, placed above these down- 

 ward tusks, would add to their efficiency for the service here 

 supposed, as the power of the harrow is increased by loading it with 

 weights. The tusks of the Dinotherium may also have been applied 

 with mechanical advantage to hook on the head of the animal to the 

 bank, with the nostrils sustained above the water, so as to breathe 

 securely during sleep, whilst the body remained floating at perfect 

 ease beneath the surface : the animal might thus repose, moored to 

 the margin of a lake or river, without the slightest muscular exertion, 

 the weight of the head and body tending to fix and keep the tusks 

 fast anchored in the substance of the bank, as the weight of the body 

 of a sleeping bird keeps the claws clasped firmly around its perch. 

 These tusks might have been further used, like those in the upper 

 jaw of the Walrus, to assist in dragging the body out of the water ; 

 and also as formidable instruments of defence. The structure of the 

 scapula already noticed seems to show that the fore leg was adapted 

 to co-operate with the tusks and teeth, in digging and separating 

 large vegetables from the bottom. The great length attributed to 

 the body would have been no way inconvenient to an animal living 

 in the water, but attended with much mechanical disadvantage to so 

 weighty a quadruped upon land. In all these characters of a gigantic, 

 herbivorous, aquatic quadruped, we recognise adaptations to the 

 lacustrine condition of the earth, during that portion of the tertiary 

 periods to which the existence of these seemingly anomalous creatures 

 appears to have been limited." 



In his description of the figures of the remains of Dinotlieriuni in 

 the same work, Dr. Buckland observes that they were found in a 

 sand-pit containing marine shells at Epplesheim, near Altzey, about 

 40 miles north-west of Darmstadt, where they are preserved in the 

 museum. He adds, that bones of Dinotherium have lately been found 

 in tertiary fresh-water limestone, near Orthes, at the foot of the 

 Pyrenees ; and with them remains of a new genus allied to rhino- 

 ceros ; of several unknown species of deer ; and of a dog or wolf, the 

 size of a lion. The following conclusion terminates the note appended 

 to the description in Dr. Buckland's first edition : " From the near 

 approximation of this animal to the living tapir, we may infer that it 

 was furnished with a proboscis, by means of which it conveyed to its 

 mouth the vegetables it raked from the bottom of lakes and rivers 

 by its tusks and claws. The bifid ungual bone (Kaup, ' Add.,' table 

 11), discovered with the other remains of Dinotherium, having the 

 remarkable bifurcation which is found in no living quadrupeds, except 

 the Pangolins, seems to have borne a claw, like that of these animals, 

 possessing peculiar advantages for the purpose of scraping and dig- 

 ging ; and indicating functions concurrent with those of the tusks 

 and scap\tl(c." 



Upon referring to the view of the skull of Dinotherium giyanteum 

 seen from above, the width of the anterior portion of the cranium 

 and the deep depression there visible, will strike the observer as very 

 remarkable ; and we find that Professor Kaup has, in his restoration 

 of the animal, furnished it with a considerable proboscis, and given 

 its general form as a good deal resembling that of the tapir. 



Dr. Buckland, in the supplementary notes to his second edition, has 

 the following notice, with a reference to p. 135 : " The Dinotherium 

 has been spoken of as the largest of terrestrial Mammalia., and as 

 presenting in its lower jaw and tusks a disposition of an extraordinary 

 kind, adapted to the peculiar habits of a gigantic herbivorous aquatic 

 quadruped." The Doctor then alludes to the entire head found in 

 1836, and thus proceeds : " Professor Kaup and Dr. Klipsteiu have 

 recflhtly published a description and figures of this head, iu which 



