1902.] 



DR. 0. I, FORSYTH MAJOR ON THE OKAPI. 



75 



At the bottom of this pi-evaiHng idea, which is disproved by all 

 the teachings of palaeontology, seems to be the veiy widespread 

 belief, nurtured by popular works and by museum show-specimens, 

 that all past faunas are made up of "extinct monsters" ; whereas 

 in reality in past times it is only a comparatively few highly 

 specialized and decadent forms — ends of a series amd not beginnings 

 — that present such peculiarities-as to justify that name. 



Text-fie-. 10. 



Cranial portion of skull of Samotherium boissieri, J, right side (reversed in the fig.)- 

 From Samos. Barbey Collection, no. 17. About 5 nat. size. 



The, geologically speaking, most ancient undoubted Giraffidae 

 have been found in the uppermost Miocene of Pikermi, Samos, 

 and Maragha ; amongst them there is a group, assigned to two 

 genera, Palceotragus and Samotherium, which possesses all the 

 requisite characters of ancestors of the recent Giraff'a. The 

 females were hornless (text- figs. 8 & 9). In both sexes there is 

 no trace of swelling at the root of the nasals, and the air-cavities 

 genei'ally are much less developed than in Giraffa, being chiefly 

 limited to the roof of the orbits. The hoi-ns, where present (text- 

 figs. 6 & 10), are restricted to the frontals, as in the new-born 

 male of the northern Giraffe. The neck was comparatively short ; 



