22 



FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALEJSTSIS. 



The Sewalik fossils include three species of Suidce: Sus 

 Hysudricus, Sus giganteus, and a new genus, Hippohyus 

 Sivalensis, with teeth exhibiting a strong tendency towards 

 the hippopotamus ; ^ also the Chalicotherium Sivalense, one 

 of the most remarkably aberrant pachyderms that have yet 

 been met with, either in the fossil or recent state, closely 

 allied to Anoplotherium, but showing a return from the ru- 

 minant tendencies of the Cuvierian species back to a more 

 pachydermatous type, and a closer affinity with rhinoceros. 



The family of Eqtddae was represented by three Sewalik 

 species, Equus Sivalensis, Equus Paiceonus,^ and Sippotherium, 

 Antelopinum, the last exhibiting the characters of a small 

 horse, drawn out into the attenuated proportions of an 

 antelope. The remains of a third species has been found in 

 the ISTetee Pars, and another fossil species, Eqtms Namadicus, 

 has been obtamed from the valley of the Nerbiidda, 



The fossil ruminants of the Sewaliks are surprisingly 

 rich, and include almost every type, fossil or recent, known 

 in the order. In the first place, there are two species of 

 giraffe, Camelopardalis Sivalensis and C. affinis, and a species 

 of camel, Camelus Sivalensis, neither of which genera have 

 before been found in the fosstl state. Then there is the 

 new genus, the gigantic Sivatherium, bearing four horns, 

 nearly approaching the elephant in size, and considerably 

 exceeding the rhinoceros. Among its chief peculiarities 

 are the immense width of cranium for muscular attach- 

 ments, the fore and hind horns, the arched form of the nasal 

 bones, as in Tapir ; the massiveness, width, and shortness 

 of the face, and the curving upwards of the gTinding plane 

 of the teeth, as in Darwin's American ox. As to its affini- 

 ties, the teeth are those of a giraffe ; in its four horns, 

 it resembles the Antilope quadricornis, while the near horns 

 resemble those of a dicranocerine antelope from IS'orth 

 America. In the head, the nearest affinities are to the ox, 

 in regard to the plane of the frontal and occipital, the parie- 

 tals being joined on to the occipital. The upper lip was 

 prolonged into a trunk. The front horns were remarkable 

 for their flat form, and in the absence of a bur, notwithstand- 

 ing the guttering. The neck vertebrse are short, and the 

 legs of huge dimensions. Altogether, the Sivatherium, was 

 a remarkable form of animal, unlike anything living. Closely 



' As no description of these fossil 

 Suidce was ever published, the reader is 

 referred to the description of the plates 

 in the Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis (Ixix. 

 to Ixxi.), and also to a memoir by Messrs. 

 Baker and Durand iu the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society for October, 1836. Vol. v. 



p. 661 ; also vol. iv. p. 568.— [Ed.] 



2 M. Lartet, in a letter to Dr." Fal- 

 coner, dated August 1855, was inclined 

 to regard Equus Palaomis as a young 

 individual of either E. Sivalensis or E. 

 Namadicus. — [Ed.] 



