ROOM VI. DINOTHERIUM CUVIERIAN PACHYDERMS. 



475 



M. Kaup considers the Dinotherium to have belonged to an extinct 

 genus of pachyderms, the form and structure of the molar teeth indi- 

 cating an approach to the Mastodons and Tapirs ; but M. Blainville and 

 M. Pictet regard it as an herbivorous cetacean, which inhabited the 

 embouchures of great rivers ; and they suppose that the large tusks of 

 the lower jaw served for uprooting the marsh and aquatic plants which 

 constituted its food. As the cranium and jaws are the only known parts 

 of the skeleton, these physiological inferences are based on their form 

 and structure ; but until bones of the extremities are discovered, no 

 positive conclusion can be obtained. The restored figure of the Dino- 

 therium, as a terrestrial pachyderm, is given in (see "Wonders of 

 Geology, p. 174) most works on palaeontology. M. Pictet, in his valuable 

 treatise on Palaeontology, has introduced an outline of the animal as an 

 aquatic herbivore, resembling the Lamantin. If the femur in Window- 

 recess, ante, p. 467, really belonged to the Dinotherium, the terrestrial 

 habits of the original would be satisfactorily established ; but at present 

 the reference of that bone to the Dinotherium is only hypothetical. 



CuviEKLiN PACHYDERMS. Wall-case F. In this cabinet are deposited 

 specimens and models of bones and teeth of extinct pachyderms, belong- 

 ing to a group of genera differing from all living forms, and which con- 

 stituted the most striking feature of the mammalian fauna of the ancient 

 tertiary epochs in Europe. They are most nearly allied to the Tapirs, 

 which are natives of warm climates, one species inhabiting India, and 

 two America. In the tertiary ages Tapirs and these allied forms existed 

 in those regions of the globe, and in Europe : their fossil remains occur 

 in the caves of Brazil, in the sandstone conglomerate on the banks of 

 the Irawadi in the Burmese empire, and in the Sewalik Hills ; in the 

 sands of Epplesheim, and in the tertiary deposits of Auvergne. 



The extinct genus nearest allied to the living Tapirs, is the Lophio- 

 don, which has six incisor teeth in each jaw, and the molars with trans- 

 verse ridges : one species found at Argenton, was as large as a rhinoceros ; 

 but the two most abundant and best known genera are those designated 

 by Baron Cuvier, PalcBotJierium, and Anoplotherium, from the gypsum 

 quarries of Montmartre. 



PALJEOTHEBIUM. The 

 animals of this genus re- 

 sembled the Tapirs in 

 the form of the head, 

 and in having a short 

 proboscis, but their molar 

 teeth were more like those 

 of the rhinoceros: their 

 fore - feet had but three 

 toes, instead of four as in 

 the Tapirs. They had for- 

 ty-four teeth ; two pointed 

 canines, longer than the 

 incisors, in each jaw. The 

 form and arrangement of the teeth are shown in Lign. 110. There are 

 eleven known species ; the largest, Palceotherium magnum, was of the 

 size of a horse five feet high, with a massive head, and proboscis, and 



LiGH.llO. JAWS AND TEETH OF PAL^OTHERIUM 

 MAGNUM, (inat.fize.) 



