4 8 4 



UNGULATES. 



these animals, from whence they migrated to Asia and Europe ; but it appears to 

 us that the evidence is equally in favour of the migration having been in the 

 opposite direction. These rhinoceroses occur throughout the Tertiary period as 

 far down as the upper Eocene division ; and even at that low r horizon many of the 

 species may be referred to the living genus, although in most cases they were 

 unprovided with horns, while some of them had four toes to each fore-foot. 

 Rhinoceroses are, therefore, even more ancient animals than tapirs. 



Mention has already been made of a rhinoceros from Greece, which was 

 closely allied to the common living African species ; but there were also several 

 other extinct Old World kinds resembling the existing African rhinoceroses in 

 the presence of two horns and in the absence of front teeth, while in some 

 cases there is evidence to prove that their skins were of the smooth type. 

 One of the most remarkable of these species is the broad -nosed rhinoceros 

 (R. platyrhinus) from the Siw^alik Hills at the foot of the Himalaya, which was an 



enormous animal, 

 with upper molar 

 teeth resembling 

 in structure those 

 of Burchell's rhin- 

 oceros, although 

 the last one was 

 of the ordinary 

 triangular shape. 

 The other species, 

 with molar teeth 

 of similar type, 

 is the woolly 

 rhinoceros (R. 

 antiquitatis), so 

 called from the 



thick coat of woolly hair with which its body w r as covered. Skeletons, bones, and 

 teeth of this species have been found in the cavern and other superficial deposits 

 of the greater part of Europe, including England, while entire carcases occur 

 frozen in the ice of the Siberian " tundra." From these frozen specimens it has 

 been ascertained not only that the skin was covered with woolly hair, but likewise 

 that it was devoid of the permanent folds characterising the Asiatic species. The 

 horns of the woolly rhinoceros appear to have rivalled in size those of the living- 

 African Burchell's rhinoceros. From the structure of their upper molar teeth it 

 may be inferred that both the broad-nosed and the woolly rhinoceros were grass- 

 eaters. In Siberia, however, portions of needles of conifers and of twigs of other 

 trees have been found in the interstices of the molar teeth of the latter; from 

 which it has been assumed that the animal was a branch-eater. It is, however, 

 quite probable that while in Siberia it may have been compelled from lack of its 

 proper food to take to feeding upon leaves and twigs, yet that in the more southern 

 portion of its range it resembled its allies in being entirely a grass-eater. 



During the Pleistocene period there w^ere three other species of two-horned 



SKULL OP EXTINCT RHINOCEROS FROM THE BRICK-EARTH OF ESSEX. 



