SOME AMERICAN MONSTERS. 



161 



This strange group of creatures flourished in great numbers on 

 the borders of an old lake of Miocene age. The Brontops was 

 a heavy massive animal, larger than any of the Dinocerata, with a 

 length of twelve feet, not including the tail, and a height of eight 

 feet. The limbs are shorter than those of the elephant, which it 

 nearly equalled in size. As in the tapir, there were four toes to the 

 front limbs, and three to the hind limbs. Its skull was of a peculiar 

 shape, shallow, and very large. That of Brontops ingens is thirty- 



. 

 FIG. 45. Skeleton of Brontops robustus. (After Marsh.) 



six inches long, and twenty inches between the tips of the two 

 horns, or protuberances. The creature was probably provided 

 with an elongated, flexible nose, like that of the tapir, but not 

 longer, because the length of the neck shows that it could reach 

 the ground without the aid of a trunk such as the elephant's. It 

 is doubtful if the two prominences on the front of the skull were 

 provided with horns, for, if directed forwards, they would interfere 

 with the animal when grazing. 



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