252 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



The artist and author, however, in making the accompanying 

 restoration, have been guided by the evident relationship between 

 Coryphodon and the Tinoceras. " The movements of the Corypho- 

 dons," says Professor Cope, "doubtless resembled those of the 

 elephant in its shuffling and ambling gait, and may have been 

 even more awkward from the inflexibility of the ankle. But in 

 compensation for the probable lack of speed, these animals were 

 most formidably armed with tusks. These weapons, particularly 

 those of the upper jaw, were more robust than those of the 

 carnivora, and generally more elongate." There is no evidence 

 that they had a proboscis in fact, it is practically impossible. 

 We may suppose from the nature of the teeth, and from other 

 evidence, that they were vegetable feeders, but not restricted 

 to any particular class of food; to a large extent they were 

 omnivorous, like the hogs of to-day. 



It is a little difficult to follow the curious interpretation arrived 

 at by Professor Osborn and Dr. Wortman that " the positions of 

 the fore and hind feet were absolutely different," the former being 

 like those of the elephant (where only the tips of the toes touch 

 the ground); the latter, in their opinion, like those of a bear 

 and spreading out to rest on the ground (plantigrade). 1 This 

 is not borne out by Professor Marsh's figure. Much valuable 

 material for the study of the anatomy of this primitive mammal 

 was collected by these two gentlemen, in spite of the many 

 difficulties with which they had to contend, during their expedi- 

 tion, in the summer of 1891, into the Big Horn and Wind Eiver 

 regions, where the Wasatch strata are found. 



The sketch-map shown in Fig. 93 will give the reader 

 a general idea of the positions of the different geological 



1 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. iv. (1892), 

 p. 121. 



