SOME EARLY MAMMALS 233 



study of Geology. His restorations became patterns for others, 

 like Owen, Huxley, Marsh, Cope, Gaudry, and many more, who 

 have worked on the lines he laid down. The mammalian remains 

 brought to Cuvier by numerous collectors were very imperfect and 

 fragmentary detached bones and teeth, with occasionally some 

 portion of a skeleton. The success with which he put them into 

 order, and built up therefrom the long-lost types of Eocene days, 

 was due largely to his wonderful knowledge of living animals, 

 but partly also to his Law of Correlation (see p. 7). 



One of Cuvier's triumphs was the restoration of the Palaeo- 



FIG. 86. Skeleton of a tapir-like animal, Pakzotherium magmim, from Eocene 

 strata, near Paris. (After Gaudry.) 



therium, 1 a tapir-like animal, from fragmentary remains found in 

 the strata of the Paris basin, chiefly at Montmartre ; his con- 

 clusions being afterwards verified by the discovery of a nearly 

 complete skeleton (see Fig. 86). The molar teeth of this animal 

 somewhat resembled those of the rhinoceros. The skull shows 

 that it had a short proboscis. The toes, of which there were 

 three on each foot, ended in small hoofs, the middle toes being 



1 Greek palaios, ancient ; therion, wild beast. 



