MASTODON. DINOTHERIUM. 



to the elephant, but whose teeth (fig. 

 1(54) have crowns studded with conical 

 or nipple-like points, instead of being 

 flat. On the miocene beds we also 

 find the gigantic Dinotherium (from 

 the Greek, dinos, circular, and thenon, 

 a beast), an animal resembling the tapir, 

 which is remarkable by having the 

 tusks turned downwards (fig- 165). 

 It was first found in Hesse, afterwards 



Fig. 164. Toothofama'sto- near Auch by M. Lartet, who sub- 

 don (reduced). sequently found in the same place the 



bones of monkeys. 



Remains of the rhi- 

 noceros, of the hippo- 



po'tamus, and of the 



castor are also found 



in these deposits. 



" The Dinothe'rium is 

 the largest of the terres- 

 trial mammalia of whose 

 existence we have any 

 positive knowledge, but 

 as it is not a matter of 

 absolute certainty at pre- 

 sent of what nature its ex- 

 tremities may have been, 

 we are hardly in a condition to speak very decidedly of its general appearance 

 or habits. It is chiefly known by the fragments of the head and teeth, 

 which exhibit a near approach, the former to the ceta'cean tribe, and the 

 latter to the tapir ; but there is a remarkable and very striking anomaly in 

 the existence of two large and heavy tusks placed at the extremity of the 

 lower jaw, and curved downwards like the tusks in the upper jaw of the 

 walrus. It is probable, from the size and position of these tusks, as well 

 as from the structure of the bones of the head, that the animal was aquatic 

 in its habits, living almost entirely in the water, and feeding on such succu- 

 lent plants as it could there obtain. 



" The length of the Dinothe'rium is calculated to have been at least as 

 much as eighteen feet, and its proportions were, probably, very much the 

 same as those of the great American tapir. It was provided with a trunk, 

 which seems to have been short, but extremely large and powerful, and 

 capable of being employed to tear up the food which the tusks, acting like 

 pick-axes, may have loosened." Ansted. 



22. The miocene is very rich in combustible material ; to it 

 belong the lignites of Languedoc, of Provence, Switzerland, and 

 most of those of Germany as well as the masses of earthy com- 



Fig. 165. Lower jaw and tusk of 

 the Dinothe'rium giga'nteum. 



21. What fossil animal remains are found in these beds ? 

 Dinothe'rium ? 



What is th* 



