444 Dr. J. Murie — On the Sivatherium giganteum, 



reticulations ; a mark of giraffe alliance, but one also met with in 

 the fossil Bramatherium and Megacerops} The next point of im- 

 portance is the manner of folding of the enamel ridges. " The inner 

 crescent, instead of sweeping in a nearly simple curve, runs zigzag- 

 wise in large sinuous flexures somewhat resembling the form in 

 ElasmotJierium."^ Finally, the last true molar, as Owen^ obsei'ves, 

 presents in the Megaceros {M. Hibernicus, the extinct gigantic Irish 

 Deer) and Sivatherium a deeper central enamel island or fold, which 

 also characterizes the smaller third lobe in the giraffe. In short, the 

 construction of the teeth, like that of the horns and fore face, borrow 

 from or assimilate to several incongruous mammalian forms. 



6. Considerations applicable to the neck, chest, and limb bones. — The 

 remains of seven neck vertebrae are tolerably complete. They show, 

 from their magnitude and strength, that great fleshy masses over- 

 lying them must have conduced to the support of the massive head. 

 The atlas is chiefly remarkable on account of the shape of its trans- 

 verse process, which is concave towards the body, and this, according 

 to Falconer's opinion, distinguishes it from that of other ruminants. 

 The peculiar features of the atlas, as far as I can make out, aj)proach 

 those of the Saiga, save in greater magnitude and relative shortness. 

 The other cervical vertebrae partly resemble those of the buffalo, the 

 ox, and the eland. The spinous processes of the third and fourth are 

 apparently imperfectly developed, and the ends of the posterior ones 

 being broken off, renders it difficult to say what might have been 

 their natural length. The transverse and inferior processes are also 

 incomplete; but doubtless they, as well as the spinous processes, 

 were very strong. Falconer and Cautley in their original paper 

 suggested " that the vertebrge were condensed as in the elephant, and 

 the neck short and thick, admitting of limited motion to the head, 

 circumstances indirectly corroborating the existence of a trunk." 

 The specimens in the British Museum, however, show them to have 

 been truly ruminant cervicals fairly proportioned. Much cannot be 

 inferred concerning the dorsal vertebrae because of their mutilation. 

 They were indeed powerful, and the spines of the first and second at 

 least, long and strong. 



The sternum in the antelope and deer groups in general is flat 

 and moderately shallow. Its very great depth and narrowness in 

 Sivatherium removes it from these groups, and shows affinity with 

 the stouter-chested oxen. As Falconer's posthumous notes attest, it 

 agrees closely with Bos urus, but it differs from this as well as from 

 other ruminants in its complete ossification. 



There is a camel-like tendency in the glenoid segment of the 

 scapula. 



The humerus in pre-eminence of the deltoid crest trends to equine 

 character. But the general massiveness of the bone altogether ap- 



' This North American form, the Megacerops Coloradensis, has been determined and 

 named by Dr. Linz from fragments described by him at the Meeting of the Acad, 

 of Nat. Science, Philadelphia, Jan. 1870. 



2 Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis. ^ u Odontography," p. 535. 



