THE EOCENE PERIOD. 311 



existing Tapirs in possessing a lengthened and flexible nose, 

 which formed a short proboscis or trunk (fig. 229), suitable as 

 an instrument for stripping off the foliage of trees the char- 



Fig. 229. Outline of Palwothenum magnum, restored. Upper Eocene, Europe. 

 (After Cuvier.) 



acters of the molar teeth showing them to have been strictly 

 herbivorous in their habits. They differ, however, from the 

 Tapirs, amongst other characters, in the fact that both the 

 fore and the hind feet possessed three toes each; whereas in 

 the latter there are four toes on each fore-foot, and the hind- 

 feet alone are three-toed. The remains of Palaotheria have 

 been found in such abundance in certain localities as to show 

 that these animals roamed in great herds over the fertile plains 

 of France and the south of England during the later portion 

 of the Eocene period. The accompanying illustration (fig. 

 229) represents the notion which the great Cuvier was induced 

 by his researches to form as to the outward appearance of 

 Palaotherium magnum. Recent discoveries, however, have 

 rendered it probable that this restoration is in some important 

 respects inaccurate. Instead of being bulky, massive, and 

 more or less resembling the living Tapirs in form, it would rather 

 appear that Palaotherium magnum was in reality a slender, 

 graceful, and long-necked animal, more closely resembling in 

 general figure a Llama, or certain of the Antelopes. 



The singular genus Anchitherium forms a kind of transition 

 between the Palaotheria and the true Horses (Equida}. The 

 Horse (fig. 230, D) possesses but one fully-developed toe to 



