18 Notices of Memoirs. 
On THE DiscoveRY OF THE PrLyis oF Dinorurrivum; AND ON THE AFFINITIES 
AND Hapirs or THE GuNus. By the Rev. J.-M. Sanna Soraro.* 
M SANNA SOLARO has discovered, at Escanecrabe, Dép. 
‘ie Haute-Garonne, a pelvis of a Dinotherium, a portion of the 
animal hitherto unknown: its weight is 160 kilogrammes (3524 lbs.). 
M. Lartet, who also has examined the specimen, is of opinion that it 
belongs to a species of much larger dimensions than D. giganteum. 
The diameter of the pelvic arch is 18 metres (nearly 6 feet) ; the 
height 1:3 metres (4 ft. 3 in.). Certain peculiarities of form, and 
its colossal dimensions, must modify our ideas regarding the size 
and habits of this animal. 
M. Solaro compares the pelvis of his Dinotherium with that of 
the Elephant, Tapir, and Megathere, with which it has some 
affinities ; but it presents also many points of difference. Besides 
the strange conformation of the pubic bones, sufficient alone to dis- 
tinguish it at a glance from all other pelves, there is a remarkable 
peculiarity, not known in any other animal,—namely, a triangular 
depression at the side of the cotyloid cavity, and between it and the 
lower projection of the iliac bones. In this depression there was 
found a bone which certainly formed an articulation. The corre- 
sponding depression of the other part was wanting ; but there oc- 
curred at the side of the pelvis another and more complete bone, 
though perhaps not entire. The head of this bone is triangular, and 
its dimensions correspond with those of the aforesaid depression. 
M. Solaro regards this bone as indicating a marsupial affinity, though 
it is true, that among other Didelphic Mammals, the marsupial bones 
are not articulated to the ilium; but it is to be borne in mind that 
the head of the Dinotherium differs remarkably from that of Pro- 
boscidians and other animals, and there is no reason why the mar- 
supial bones should not be articulated to the ilium instead of to the 
anterior part of the pubis. 
If, then, the Dinotherium was an aplacental mammal, its habits 
could not be those assigned to it by Dr. Buckland, namely, habitually 
living and feeding in lakes, and occasionally frequenting their mar- 
gins. In the first place, it could not live in the waiter, at least 
during the second period of gestation, without exposing its young to 
injury ; and, as from the long time the young are carried in the 
pouch (in the Kangaroo, an animal of diminutive size in comparison, 
it is eight months), the animal would have to habituate itself to other 
than its ordinary kind of nutriment. Secondly, the author is of 
opinion that a lacustrine vegetation would be inadequate for the 
supply of food for such a gigantic animal; and he adds that we have 
a further evidence of this in the conformation of its teeth,—for, from 
the nature of the tissues of the roots of aquatic plants, a very slight 
effort would be sufficient to triturate them; but the deep grooves and 
trenchant ridges of the grinders of this animal indicate, on the con- 
trary, that the vegetables upon which the animal browsed offered a 
* Mémoire sur le Premier Bassin de Dinotheriwm découvert dans le Départe- 
ment de la Haute-Garonne par le R. P. J.-M. Sanna Sozaro, de la Compagnie de 
Jésus. Large Svo. Toulouse, 1864. pp.19. 3 plates. See also ‘L’Institut,’ Oct. 5, 
1864, p. 319. 
