LOPHIODON MINIMUS. 313 



its exterior basal ridge is stronger : the whole tooth is, 

 likewise, smaller by one third than its analogue in the 

 permanent series of teeth of the existing Tapirs. 



The difference in the superior size of the anterior talon 

 and external basal ridge approximates the fossil tooth 

 to the extinct subgenus of Tapiroids, which Cuvier has 

 called Lopkiodon, as will be evident by comparing the fossil 

 (fig. 108, a and 5) with the figure of the penultimate molar, 

 right side, lower jaw, of the Lophiodon minimus, a species, 

 moreover, precisely corresponding in size with our English 

 fossil, in the ' Ossemens Fossiles, 1 4to. 1822, vol. ii. pt. 1, 

 ' Animaux Fossiles voisins des Tapirs, 1 pi. x. 



More decisive evidence of the special relation of the pre- 

 sent fossils to the Lophiodont section of the Tapiroid 

 family, is yielded by the smaller tooth (fig. 108, p g), 

 next to - be described. This tooth was found close to the 

 preceding, in the formation of eocene clay, which immedi- 

 ately overlies the chalk at Bracklesham. Compared with 

 the recent Tapirs, it presents the same general modification 

 of the crown, as does the premolar tooth with which the 

 series of the six grinding teeth commences in both Indian 

 and American Tapirs. But, in the fossil, the anterior talon 

 is by no means so large or so muclr produced : the second 

 eminence is relatively broader : the third transverse emi- 

 nence, instead of a concavity, presents a prominence with a 

 ridge on each side of its base, and a third intermediate one 

 connecting it with the second eminence of the crown : in all 

 those characters our fossil agrees more closely with the Lo- 

 pModon, as may be seen by comparing fig. 108,^? 2, with 

 the tooth *, fig. 1 . pi. i. of the volume of the ' Ossemens 

 Fossiles, 1 above cited, representing the jaw of a larger 

 species of Lophiodon. But the question of the subgenus of 

 Tapiroid, to which the Bracklesham fossils are referable, is 



