270 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



with the form of their teeth, which it would he 

 too tedious and minute to detail here. 



The Anoplotheria have hitherto heen disco- 

 vered nowhere but in the gypsum quarries of the 

 neighbourhood of Paris. They have two characters 

 which are observed in no other animal ; feet with 

 two toes, the metacarpal and metatarsal bones of 

 which are separate in their whole length, and do 

 not unite into a single piece, as in the ruminan- 

 tia ; and teeth placed in a continuous series with- 

 out any interruption. Man alone has the teeth 

 so placed in mutual contiguity, without any inter- 

 val. Those of the anaplotheria consist of six in- 

 cisors in each jaw, a canine tooth and six grinders 

 on each side, both above and below ; their canine 

 teeth are short and similar to the outer incisors. 

 The three first grinders are compressed ; the four 

 others are, in the upper jaw, square, with trans- 

 verse ridges, and a small cone between them ; and, 

 in the lower jaw, in the form of a double crescent, 

 but without neck at the base. The last has three 

 crescents. Their head is of an oblong form, and 

 does not indicate that the muzzle has terminated 

 either in a proboscis or a snout. 



This extraordinary genus, which can be com- 

 pared to nothing in living nature, is subdivided 

 into three subgenera : the Anaplotheria, proper- 

 ly so called, the anterior molares of which are still 

 pretty thick, and the posterior ones of the lower 



