76 MIOCENE FAUNA. 



are nearly allied to those now living : thus Hyopotamus, one 

 species of which (H. borbonicus, Gerv.) has been discovered in 

 the sandstone of Aarwangen, is very like the common pig ; the 

 head is produced into a long and slender snout, and has a long 

 toothless space in the upper jaw; Palaochcerus (P. typus, Pom., 

 from Aarwangen) is comparable to the American peccary (Dicoty- 

 les) , and iheHyotherium to the East-Indian Babirussa, which is re- 

 markable for its very long canine teeth, strongly curved back wards. 

 One species (Hyothermm Sommeringi, Meyer), about the size of 

 the Swiss wild boar, has been found in the Upper Miocene at 

 Elgg and La Chaux-de-Fonds ; a second, more abundant, spe- 

 cies (H. Meissneri, Meyer) appears in the lower freshwater 

 Miocene (at Aarwangen and Aarberg) , and it still lived in the 

 country at the time of the formation of the Upper Miocene 

 (Kapfnach) ; whilst the third (H. medium, Meyer) is known 

 only in the upper Miocene (Kapfnach and Niederutzweil). But 

 the most important genus of this group is Anthracotherium, so 

 called because its remains were formerly found only in the lig- 

 nites. It includes the largest animals of this group. One spe- 

 cies (A. magnum, Cuv.) was as large as an ox, and it had also the 

 appearance of a pig ; it had an elongated head, attenuated in 

 front, and produced into a sort of trunk, with large incisots, 

 which are directed forwards as in the pig ; strong canine teeth, 

 standing upon large roots, recurved and projecting, as in 

 the wild boar, like powerful tusks; and in each jaw seven 

 tubercular molars separated only by a short space from the 

 canines. The chief locality for this remarkable animal in Swit- 

 zerland is in the lignites of Rochette and of the Conversion 

 above Paudeze, where Dr. P. Delaharpe and Dr. C. Gaudin have 

 discovered the remains of about ten individuals. In this place 

 a nearly complete skeleton was found. The Anthracotherium 

 must therefore have been abundant in the marshes of the Pau- 

 deze. It is not, however, restricted to this stage of the Miocene, 

 as its teeth have been found in the Miocene of Schangnau in 

 the Canton of Berne, which belongs to the third Miodene stage. 

 A second species (A. hippoideum, Riitim.) has been obtained by 

 Prof. Morlot in the sandstone of Aarwangen. It is rather 

 smaller than the preceding, and is distinguished by the sharper 

 and more trenchant ridges and points of its molar teeth, and its 



