74 MIOCENE FAUNA. 



at the extremity. At Veltheim two splendid skulls have been 

 discovered ; these constitute real ornaments of the collection at 

 Winterthur. One of them belonged to a young male animal ; 

 and this has furnished important information as to the change 

 of teeth in the mastodons. Elgg is the chief locality for the 

 first-mentioned species (M. tapiroides, Cuv.) ; but it has also 

 been discovered at Kapfnach and GEningen*. 



The Dinotheria were larger than the mastodons, and they had 

 similar molar teeth or grinders ; the lower jaw was armed with 

 two strong tusks bent downwards, which must have given these 

 animals a remarkable appearance. The very prominent nasal 

 bone leads one to suppose that the Dinotherium had a long 

 proboscis, which, considering the remarkable conformation of 

 the teeth in the lower jaw, was requisite to enable it to take 

 its food. The skull, being flat above, formerly led to the 

 belief that this enormous animal belonged to the family of the 

 sea-cows (Sirenia), and that it lived in the water; but a skele- 

 ton discovered about fifteen years ago near Abtsdorf in Bohemia 

 proved it to belong to the Pachydermata, and to be most nearly 

 allied to the mastodons, in accordance with the views of Cuvier 

 and Owen. Dinotherium giganteum, Kaup, the largest species 

 of the genus, was distributed all over Europe in the Upper Mio- 

 cene times ; and that it then inhabited Switzerland is proved by 

 the fine teeth which have been discovered at Delsberg and La 

 Chaux-de-Fonds. 



The richest genus of Pachyderms in the Swiss Miocene is the 

 Rhinoceros, five species of which have been found. The most 

 abundant are Rhinoceros incisivus and R. minutus, Cuv., which 

 have been discovered in several localities from the lower lignite 

 formation (Hohe-E/honen and Rufi) to the upper freshwater 

 Miocene (Elgg and La Chaux-de-Fonds) . The first-named spe- 

 cies was of the size of the Indian rhinoceros, but is distinguished 

 by its large incisor teeth, its small narrow nasal bone without 

 any horn, and its contracted orbits. The small rhinoceros (R. 

 minutus) also probably possessed no horn ; but it was much less 



* From a figure communicated to Mm, Kaup referred the molars found here 

 to M. angustidens (see his 'Beitrage zur Kenntniss der urweltlichen Sa'uge- 

 thiere,' iii. p. 11) ; but Prof. Suess, who has lately examined them at Harlem, 

 where they are preserved, declares them to be M. tapiroides, Cuv. ( = turicensis, 

 Sch.). 



