THE CANINE TOOTH OF GIRAFFES 



of the pig and other typi-dentate animals 

 (animals with "typical" dentition, that is to 

 say, little altered from the form and arrangement 

 in early mammahan ancestors). In the cattle, 

 sheep, antelopes and deer, this tooth has a quite 

 simple chisel-hke crown, Hke that of the incisors. 

 But in the giraffe it is very peculiar : the crown 



<5i(^/\ffC (M.i.« ocrt.T.oM) $A«1orH£i^iUivj 



dAN'NE TEETH OP ^il^'KFfiO/E 5»V'\T»1tft'l^N-' 



Fig. 1 11. — ^Front teeth of the lower jaw of the Giraffe and allied 

 animals, namely, the Samotherium, the Sivatherium, and 

 the Okapi, to show the bilobed or bifoliate broad canine 

 tooth wich its split crown — only known in animals of the 

 giraffe family. 



is divided by a slit into two halves, each of 

 which is large and broad. It is described as 

 bi-foliate (see Fig. 111). No other mammalian 

 animal was known with this peculiar shape of 

 this particular tooth among living animals until 

 the other day. But a great extinct animal from 

 India, the Sivatherium (Fig. 112), with much 



159 



