NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PRIMEVAL WORLD. 



The Chceropotamm is a genus of Pachyderms, 

 founded by Cuvier on fossil remains associated in the 

 Paris basin with those of the Anoplotherium and 

 Palseotherium. Some remains have also been dis- 

 covered at Winstead, near Ryde, in the Isle of Wight. 

 This interesting animal seems to have been closely 

 allied to the Peccaries which now inhabit the virgin 

 forests of Equatorial America. According to Professor 

 Owen, in the structure of some of their teeth, and the 

 conformation of their lower jaw, they approximate 

 decidedly to the ferine type. Alluding to the car- 

 nivorous propensities of our common hog, he points out 

 that the extinct Chseropotamus was still better adapted 

 by its dentition for predaceous habits, and pronounces 

 it " an interesting example of one of those links, 

 completing the chain of affinities, which the revolu- 

 tion of the earth's surface have interrupted, as it 



Paiseotheriuiu magnum restored. 



were, and for a time concealed from our view." 

 He adds, that it is curious to notice that the living 

 Kub-genus of the family to which the Chseropotamus 

 is most nearly allied, is an inhabitant only of South 

 America, where the llama and the tapir, the nearest 

 living analogues of the anoplotherian and palseotherian 

 associates of the Chseropotamus now exist, and which 

 was formerly the native habitat of a genus, Macrau- 

 chenia, connecting the llama with the palseothere. 



Dr. Buckland is of opinion that the Chaeropotamus, 

 in some respects, resembled the Babiroussa (.? Babi- 

 russa), a gregarious animal, found in the wooded 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago. 



The Palceotherium, or ancient wild beast, in gene- 

 ral appearance resembled the tapir, especially in having 

 the snout terminated by a short proboscis. It was 

 characterized by the following arrangement of teeth : 



Incisors. 



3-3 

 3-3 



Canines. Pre-molars. 



11 4-4 



11 4^4 



Molars. 



3-3 



= 44. 



It had three toes on each foot, each terminated by a 

 hoof. Like the tapir, it frequented the banks of rivers 

 and large lakes, was nocturnal in its habits, and lived 

 upon herbivorous food, such as fruits, buds, and the 

 young shoots of trees. 



Eleven or twelve species of the Palseotherium have 

 been discovered ; some as large as a rhinoceros, others 

 varying from the size of a hog to that of a horse. 



The Lophiodon is another extinct genus of Pachy- 

 derms, allied most nearly to the tapir and rhinoceros ; 

 in some respects, to the hippopotamus ; and in others 

 to the Palceotherium and Anoplotherium. Fifteen 

 species of Lophiodon have been distinguished. 



The Hyracotherium is a pachydermatous genus, 

 belonging to the division Perisodactyla, the animals 

 of which are characterized by possessing an uneven 

 number of toes. It was founded by Professor Owen 

 on the remains of two species 

 discovered in the Eocene strata. 

 A third species was afterwards 

 exhumed from the Roman 

 cement bed of the London clay, 

 near Harwich. This fossil con- 

 sisted of an entire skull, of the 

 right humerns and femur, the 

 ft femur (nearly complete), 

 the left tibia, three metatarsal 

 bones, and fragments of the ver- 

 tebrse, ribs, and pelvis. The 

 head, which was slender and 

 tapering, like that of the exist- 

 ing tapir, measured five inches 

 in length, and a little more 

 than two inches in breadth. Its 

 straight contour, and the con- 

 formation of the nasal aperture, 

 allied the animal to the horse 

 and the hyrax. From the 

 structure of its teeth, it is evi- 

 dent that its habits were herbi- 

 vorous, while the form and 

 proportions of its limbs were 



midway, so to speak, between the hyrax and the tapir. 

 The three species at present known are called 

 respectively the Hyracotherium (or Pliolophus) vulpi- 

 ceps, Hyracotherium leporinum, and Hyracotherium 

 caniculus. This latter species was founded on several 

 teeth belonging to a smaller animal than the others, 

 discovered in the Eocene sand at Lynn in Suffolk. 

 They were considered by Professor Owen to belong to 

 a quadrumanous animal, which he named Macacus 

 eoccenus, and described as " at once the first terrestrial 

 mammal found in the London clay, and the first 

 quadrumanous animal hitherto discovered in any 

 country in tertiary strata so old as the Eocene period." 

 On further examination, however, our great palaeon- 

 tologist recognized that the two teeth belonged, not to 

 a monkey, but to a third species of Hyracotherium. 



The Anthracothenum was so called because first 

 discovered in the Tertiary coal, or anthracite, of Cadi- 

 bona in Liguria. It presents seven species, some of 

 them approximating in size and character to the hog, 

 others more nearly approaching the hippopotamus. 



