234 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



the largest. Its eye was small, and the head rather large. 

 Several species have been determined, varying from the size of 

 a sheep (P. curturn) to that of a horse (P. magnum), and it had 

 much in common with both the horse and the rhinoceros. 

 P. medium was rather smaller than an American Tapir : P. minus 

 was a small and elegant species, of which the fresh-water Eocene 

 beds of the Isle of Wight have yielded remains. 



A complete specimen, discovered in 1874, with the outline of 

 the body indicated in the rock, was of a slenderer build, and with 

 a longer neck than in Cuvier's restoration, on which our artist's 

 drawing in Plate XXXIX. is based ; but the earlier discoveries do 

 not agree with this, and the reader can easily see for himself that 

 the skeleton shown in Fig. 86 could not have had a longer neck 

 without at the same time having longer legs, and probably thinner 

 bones. We have therefore adhered to the now familiar outline 

 of the Palaeothere as restored by Cuvier and since copied into 

 almost every book on Geology. Doubtless there were many 

 species existing at the time, and this later discovery probably 

 represents one of the slenderer sort. 



Such then, in all probability, was the Palaeothere, a creature 

 which lived in herds in the valleys of the plateau surrounding 

 the ancient lake-basins of Orleans and Argenton; in the de- 

 partment of Gironde ; in the Isle of Wight : and in various parts 

 of Europe. 



Its contemporary, the Anoplotherium, 1 so called from its 

 apparently defenceless state, is represented in the same Plate. 

 This animal was of a lighter and more elegant form, and its 

 limbs ended each in two digits, only terminating in hoofs. As in 

 the Palaeothere, the jaws contained forty-four teeth, but there 

 was no interval in the series. There are suggestions in its frame- 

 1 Greek alpha, privative ; hopla, arras ; therion, beast. 



