CERVINE ANOPLOTHERE. 441 



motive organs, deviate in another direction, and almost 

 complete the transition from the Pachydermal to the 

 Ruminant order. 



Among these genera the DicJiobune of Cuvier is the most 

 remarkable, inasmuch as the posterior molars (fig. 181, m 1, 

 , 2, m, 3,) begin to exhibit a double series of cusps, of which 

 the external present the crescentic form ; and in one species 

 (Dichob. murina, Cuv.,) the crescents are acute and com- 

 pressed laterally, so that when viewed separately they 

 might be mistaken for the teeth of a true Ruminant.* In 

 the lower jaw of the DicJiobune the penultimate and ante- 

 penultimate grinders present two pairs of cusps, the last 

 grinder three pairs, of which the posterior are small and 

 almost blended together, so that when worn down they 

 appear single. In this respect, as well as in the form of 

 the ascending ramus of the lower jaw, Cuvier, who is not 

 prone to exaggerated expressions, observes that the Dicho- 

 bunes prodigiously resemble the young Musk-deer. ~f 



This resemblance was well appreciated by Mr. Pratt, to 

 whom we owe the discovery of the interesting extinct 

 British quadruped which is the subject of the present 

 section. The species, it is true, is represented by only a 

 single fragment of the skeleton, but -this is a characteristic 

 one ; it consists of the posterior half of the left ramus of 

 the lower jaw with the three true molar teeth : it was 

 found in the lowest bed of the freshwater marl at Bin- 

 stead. 



* La position et le nombre des pointes y (Dichob.') sont les memes que dans 

 1'espece precedents ; mais les pointes sont plus aigue's et comprimees lateralement, 

 ce que tend encore davantage a les rapprocher des molaires des Ruminans. ' Os- 

 semens Fossiles,' torn. iii. p. 64. 



( Or cette dentition, cette forme de branche montante, cette grandeur meme, 

 ressemblent prodigieusement a ce qu'on observe dans les jeunes Chevrotains. 

 Ibid. p. 65. 



