THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE: 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. III. 



No. VL — JUNE, 1906. 



OI^IC3-IIsr.A.X. .i^S-TICXjES. 



I. — The Pigmy HipporoTAMUs of Cypkus. 



By Dorothea M. A. Bate. 



(PLATE XV.) 



THE accompanying Plate represents a restoration of the skeleton 

 of Hippopotamus minutus, Blain., which has lately been completed 

 in the Geological Department of the British Museum (Nat. Hist). 

 The vertebral column and limbs are almost entirely composed of 

 the actual bones, while the model of the skull has been built up 

 according to the various parts obtained separately. No ribs were 

 preserved in their entirety, neither were perfect specimens of the 

 scapulce or innominate bones procured. A large amount of material, 

 including that from which the reconstruction of this skeleton has 

 been made, was brought from Cyprus as the result of excavations 

 carried on there by me at different times in 1901-2. The specimen 

 was mounted and the skull modelled with great skill by Mr. F. 0. 

 Barlow, Formatore in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



As already recorded,^ a number of Pleistocene deposits containing 

 remains of this pigmy hippopotamus were discovered, five of which 

 were situated in caves in the sea cliffs of Cape Pyla, which has 

 a coastline of about five miles. In one of these, which is known as 

 that of Haghios Saronda, the ossiferous breccia attains a thickness of 

 seven feet, while indications are not wanting to suggest the belief 

 that originally it was of even greater dimensions. In the other 

 caves in the vicinity remains were present in much smaller quantities, 

 this being in most cases evidently partially the result of incursions 

 of the sea subsequent to their deposition. Seven other deposits 

 occur on the south side of the Kerynia Mountains, all within 

 a distance of a few miles, and are situated in low and insignificant 

 cliffs which lie parallel with the axis of the range. Owing to the 

 Upper Eocene formation overlapping the limestone to a greater 



1 Trans. Eoyal Soc. B., yoI. 197 (1904), pp. 347-8. 



DECADE V. — VOL. III. — NO. A'l. 16 



