26 



GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



Pier-case 9. discovered in the Paris (;lypsiim and studied liy Cuvier, who 

 Table-case yigjitiy recognised many points of resemblance in it t(j the 

 living tapirs, and published in 1825 the accompanying 

 restored sketch of the animal (Fig. 15). As already men- 

 tioned, in fact, all the P^oeene Perissodactyla are a<lapted for 

 dwelling in marslies, like the tapirs ; and they are preceded 

 at the base of the Eocene by five- toed animals, like Plicna- 

 codus (Pier-case 9 and Table-case 5), which is one of the 

 small-brained Condylarthra to l^e noticed below (p. 48). 



The gradual changes in the feet, teeth, and skulls of the 

 horse-like hoofed animals, as they are traced through the 

 Tertiary period, are also illustrated by a series of plaster 



Fig. 1-5. — Restoration of the skeleton and outline of the body of Palxo- 

 therium magnum, from the Upper Eocene; aboiit one-thirtieth nat. 

 size. (After Cuvier.) 



casts and models arranged in a (.'ase in the (Tallery of 

 Domesticated Animals behind the Oreat Hall. 

 Pier-case 9. The distribution of the tapirs or Tapiridae in the existing 

 world is very curious, and has only l)een explained l)y the 

 study of fossils. They occur exclusively in the Malayan 

 region of Asia, and in the tropical parts of America, not in 

 any intervening country. In the Pliocene and Miocene 

 periods, however, they ranged over most of Asia, Europe, 

 and North America. They are thus a vanishing race, which 

 has survived only at the two extremities of its former area 

 of distriliution. A hue ])alate of I'cqmnis 2^riscus, from the 

 Lower Pliocene of Eppelsheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, is exhibited 

 in Pier-case 9. There are also isolated teetli of To.pirvs from 

 China and from the English Picd Crag. 



