THE NEOZOIC AGES. 251 



several species now extinct; the mastodon, a great, 

 coarsely-built, hog-like elephant, some species of 

 which had tusks both in the upper and lower jaw; 

 the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the horse, all 

 of extinct species. We have also giraffes, stags, and 

 antelopes, the first ruminants known to us, and a 

 great variety of smaller and less noteworthy crea- 

 tures. Here also, for the first time, we find the 

 curious and exceptional group of Edentates, repre- 

 sented by a large ant-eater. Of all the animals of 

 the European Miocene, the most wonderful and un- 

 like any modern beast, is the Dinotherium, found in 

 the Miocene of Epplesheim in Germany; and de- 

 scribed by Kaup. Some doubt rests on the form 

 and affinities of the animal ; but we may reasonably 

 take it, as restored by its describer, and currently 

 reproduced in popular books, to have been a quad- 

 ruped of somewhat elephantine form. Some years 

 ago, however, a huge haunch bone, supposed to be- 

 long to this creature, was discovered in the South of 

 France ; and from this it was inferred that the 

 Dinothere may have been a marsupial or pouched 

 animal, perhaps allied in form and habits to the 

 kangaroos. The skull is three feet four inches in 

 length; and when provided with its soft parts, in- 

 cluding a snout or trunk in front, it must have been 

 at least five or six feet long. Such a head, if it 

 belonged to a quadruped of ordinary proportions, 

 must represent an animal as large in proportion to 

 our elephant as an elephant to an ox. But its size 



