GIANTS AND PIOMIBfl. 



05 



resemble the tnpir. Tho short and stout neck was astiigned to 

 it on account of the vertebrae of the nock being compressed 

 in the original skeleton. Tho discovery referred to was niadfl 

 in a plaster ([uarry at Vitry-sur-Seine. Here was foun<l an 

 almost entire skeleton embedded in gypsum and marl, which 

 shows tl'.at the Palaeotherhim magnum^ instoatl of being bulky 

 and massive, was a very slender animal, with an extremely 

 graceful carriage, a neck longer than in tho horse, and a general 

 contour, much tho same as that of the Llama. We quote the 

 description from Nature, Feb. 12th, 1874. A picture illustrates 

 tho description : It had a height a little less than that of a 

 middle sized horse. Three toes are found on each of tho feet; 

 the head, much like that of the tapir, had probably tho rudi- 

 ment of a trunk : tlie former has a third trochanter. The 

 dentary system is composed, in each jaw, of six incisors, two 

 canines and fourteen molars, these latter corresponiling with 

 the same teeth in the rhinoceros. Like its congeners of which 

 a dozen species are at present known, it was herbivorous, and 

 without doubt lived in large herds. Tho specimen is in the 

 Museum of Natural History, Paris. 



40. Of the other mammals associated in life and death 

 with tho Palueotherea, we notice the Annplotheres, comtintne 

 and scciinil avium. We give Owen's description of the first (3.) 

 (This too is on the geological island) "It was 8 feet long 

 including the tail or 4^ feet without the tail. The body was 

 about as long as that of a common ass, but less elevated above 

 the ground, the withers being probably little more than 3 feet. 

 The long and powerful tail must have formed the chief pecu- 

 liarity in the living animal's outward form. This must have 

 been of the same service to it in swimming as the tail of the 

 otter. Its small, equable and well-opposed upper incisors would 

 indicate that it cropped grass like a horse. This, one of the 

 earliest hoofed quadrupeds introduced upon the surface of the 

 earth, presents in comparison with living species, no indications 

 of inferior or rudimental character in any known part of its 

 organization. With regard to dentition it not only possessed 

 iucisora and canines in both jaws, but these teeth were so 



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