34 



KATUKAL IlISTOKY OF THE PEIMEVAL WORLD. 



The most remarkable bone of the body yet foiuid is 

 the shoulder-blade, which, iu form, more nearly resem- 

 bles that of the mole than of any other animal, and 

 seems to indicate a pectdiar adaptation of the fore-leg 

 to the ]>urpose3 of digging— an indication confirmed 

 by the singular stnicttn-e of the lower jaw. 



The form of the animal's molar teelh approximates 

 to that of the molar teeth of the tapir; but a noticeable 

 deviation from the character of the tapir, as well as 

 of every other quadruped, consists in the presence of 

 two enormous tusks, placed at the anterior extremity 

 of the lower jaw, and curved downwards like tlje upper 

 tusks of the walrus. 



" It is mechanically impossible," says Ur. Buckland, 

 " that a lower jaw, nearly four feet long, loaded with 

 such heavy tusks at its extremity, could have been 

 otherwise than cumbrous and inconvenient to a quad- 

 ruped living on dry land. No such disadvantage could 

 have attended this structure iu a large animal destined 

 to live in water ; and the aquatic habits of the family 

 of tapirs, to which the Dinotherium was most nearly 

 allied, render it probable that, like them, it was an 

 inhabitant of fresh-water lakes and rivers. To an 

 animal of such habits, the weight of the tusks sustained 

 iu water would have been no source of inconvenience; 

 and if we sui)pose them to have been emploj'ed as 

 instruments for raking and grubbing up by the roots 

 large aquatic vegetables from the bottom, they would, 

 "under such service, combine the mechanical powers 

 of the pickaxe with those of the horse-harrow of 

 modern husbandr}'. The weight of the head, placed 

 above these downward tusks, would add to their 

 efficiency for the service here supposed, as the power 

 of the harrow is increased by being loaded with 

 weights. 



'' The tusks of the Dinotherium may also have been 

 applied with mechanical advantage to hook on the head 

 of the animal to the bank, with the nostrils sustained 

 above the water, so as to breathe securely during sleep, 

 whilst the body remained floating at perfect ease 

 beneath the surface ; the animal might thus repose, 

 moored to the margin of a lake or river, without the 

 slightest muscular exertion, the weight of the head and 

 body tending to fix and keep the tusks fast anchored 

 in the substance of the bank ; as the weight of the 

 body of a sleeping bird keeps the claws clasped firmly 

 around its pei ch. These tusks might have been further 

 used, like those in the upper jaw of the walrus, to assist 

 in dragging the body out of the water; and also as 

 formidable instruments of defence. 



" The structure of the scapula, already noticed, seems 

 to show that the fore-leg was adapted to co-operate 

 with the tusks and teelh in digging and separating large 

 vegetables from the bottom. The great length attri- 

 buted to the body would have been no way inconvenient 

 lo an animal living in the water, but attended with 

 much mechanical disadvantage to so weighty a quad- 

 ruped upon land. In all these characters of a gigantic, 

 herbivorous, aijuatie quadruped, we recognize adapta- 

 tions to the lacustrine condition of the earth, durin"- 

 that portion of the tertiary periods to wdiich the exist- 

 ence of these seemingly anomalous creatures appears 

 to have been limited." 



A genus of carnivorous Mammalia belonging to tlio 

 Miocene period has been named the Machairodus, from 

 /j,a.y^aipa, " a sword," and odou;, a " tooth ;" in allusion 

 to its distinguishing characters, its long, curved, com- 

 pressed teeth, the crowns of which have finely serrated 

 margins. The fossil lemains of this quadruped have 

 been discovered in this country, and in several parts of 

 Europe. In this island, says Professor Owen, anterior 

 to the deposition of the drift, there was associated with 

 the great extinct tiger, bear, and hvcEna of the caves, 

 in the destructive task of controlling the numbers of the 

 richly developed order of the herbivorous JIammalia, a 

 feline animal, the Ilachairodtis, as large as the tiger, 

 and, to judge by its instruments of destruction, of even 

 greater ferocity. When we read that, in certain districts 

 of India, whole villages have been depopulated by the 

 destructive incursions of a single feline species, the 

 tiger, we can scarcely conceive it possible that man, in 

 an early and rude condition of society, could have 

 resisted the attacks of the more formidable tiger, bear, 

 and machairodus of the cave epoch. And this consider- 

 ation may lead us the more readily to accept the 

 negative evidence of the absence of any well-authenti- 

 cated human fossil remains, and to conclude that man 

 did not exist on the earth which was simultaneously 

 ravaged by these formidable Carnivora, aided in their 

 mission of destruction by herds of savage liysnas. 



The fossiliferous deposits of the Siwalik hills in India, 

 which were so thoroughly explored by Dr. Falconer and 

 Major Cautley, and which include remains of a giraffe, 

 an ostrich, three large Carnivora, and other animals, 

 also belong to the sub-period we are now considering. 

 Among these animals, one of the most interesting seems 

 to have been the Sivatherium, so named from Siva, an 

 Indian dcily, and Unfiov, " a wild beast." It resembled 

 a gigantic antelope iu the shape of its body, but its 

 head must have borne some likeness to that of an elk : 

 for it was short and thick, with two pairs of horns ; 

 the front pair small, the hind pair much larger, and pro- 

 bably pahnated and set behind. The eyes were small, 

 and placed on either side of the head. 



Huge must have been the lips in proportion to its 

 other physiognomical features; and from the large pro- 

 jecting bone over the nasal aperture, it is evident that 

 this strange creature was furnished with a proboscis, 

 an organ not found in any existing species of the 

 Ruminantla, and wdiich it availed itself of, we may 

 infer, to bring within its reach the young shoots and 

 boughs of ihe loftier trees. 



In bulk the skull was scarcely inferior to that of an 

 elephant; the neck was shorter than in the giraffe, 

 much stronger, and admirably adapted to sustain the 

 weight of the heavy head and its two pairs of massive 

 horns. 



There seems to have been two species of this extra- 

 ordinary genus. The larger is called by Dr. Falconer 

 Sivatherium giganteum; the smaller, Sivatherium Pcri- 

 mense. 



We only notice further the Gahcynus, the genus 

 of fossil carnivorous Mammalia, also belonging to the 

 middle Tertiaries, and founded for the reception of a 

 singular fossil, discovered in a quarry at Qiningen. 

 When first obtained, and presented to the British 



