THE TAPIR AND RHINOCEROS. 195 



Throughout the whole of the Diluvium and the 

 Tertiary period up to the Palaeotherise and Lio- 

 phodons, there existed rhinoceroses, or hornless 

 animals closely related to them. Midway in the line 

 stands the hornless Aceratherium. Its connection 

 with the PalseotheridEe and the Tapiridse becomes 

 at once apparent from an examination of the skull ; 

 still, a diminution of the front and canine teeth 

 has taken place. In fact, the whole family of the 

 Khinoceridae, up to the present day, shows more 

 variability of the incisors and canines than any 

 other group. The dental formula of the Acerathe- 



2*0*7 



rium is -. Also by possessing four toes on 



the fore-limbs it stood closest to its five-toed an- 

 cestors. Aceratherium is followed upwards by the 

 true rhinoceros with enlarged nasal bones capable 

 of supporting heavy horns. In several of the 

 Diluvial species above all, in Rhinoceros ticho- 

 rhinns, 1 which ranged across Central Europe as far 

 as the Asiatic Polar Ocean- -the otherwise gristly 



1 A rhinoceros, with a bony partition between the nostrils, 

 lived in Europe with the mammoth up to the period of Man, and 

 its fossil remains, like those of its contemporary, helped our fore- 

 fathers in their conception of giants and dragons. On the market- 

 place in Klagenfurt is a very old stone image of a dragon, the 

 head of which has most unmistakably been modelled from the 

 skull of Rhinoceros tlclwrliinus. 



o 2 



