266 



EXTINCT MONSTERS 



Egyptian Lake Mceris. " Can it be possible," the reader may 

 well ask, " that this skull once belonged to a creature which was 

 the forerunner of Elephants ? " Well, so it seems, although the 

 differences are very great. The shape of the skull gives no sug- 

 gestion at all of anything elephantine, nor does the large number of 

 teeth with their sharp pointed ridges. The Mceritherium, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Andrews, 1 was about the size of a tapir, which it much 

 resembled, and it probably frequented the marshes of the period 



FIG. 102. Skull and lower jaw of Tetrabelodon augustidens, from Middle 

 Miocene of Sansan, France. (After 0. W. Andrews.) 



(Middle Eocene), see Plate XLIV. The length of the skull is only 

 about sixteen inches ; the limbs are partly known. The next beast, 

 the Palaeomastodon beadnelli was larger and more adapted to a 

 terrestrial life. Its skull, shown in Fig. 101, was about three feet 

 long, and now we see something really elephantine. The whole 

 face, nose, and cheeks began to be pushed forward, its forehead 

 slopes upward, and there is a large opening for the nose, the teeth 



1 Catalogue of the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayum Egypt. Published by 

 Trustees of the British Museum. 



