TETEACONODON OR CHCEROTHERIUM. 



149 



V. DESCEIPTION OF A TEAGMENT OF A JAW 

 OF AN UNKNOWN EXTINCT PACHYDER- 

 MATOUS ANIMAL FROM THE YALLEY OF 

 THE MURKUNDA. ' 



BY H. FALCONER, M.D. 



The fossil is a portion of the right side of the upper jaw, 

 containing the two posterior molars. The last tooth is 

 nearly entire, and very perfect ; the other is broken off at its 

 anterior third. The teeth are not mineralized. The enamel 

 retains its light and pearly colour ; but the osseous structure 



' The specimen to which this memoir 

 refers was found by Messrs. Baker and 

 Durand in the tertiary hills between 

 the Murkunda Pass and Pinjore, and 

 was figured by them in the ' Asiatic Ee- 

 searches' (vol. xix. plate v. figs. 2 a, 2 h, 

 and 2 rf), with the following description : 

 ' The specimen is the only one of the 

 kind hitherto met with. It is a fragment 

 from the jaw of some pachydermatous ani- 

 mal, but difiFers materially from all with 

 which it has been compared. Further 

 discoveries will, it is hoped, throw light 

 on this interesting fragment.' To this 

 description, the following note by Mr. 

 James Prinsep, the editor of the ' As. 

 Researches,' is appended : — ' The draw- 

 ing of this fragment so much resembled 

 Cuvier's plates of the hippopotamus, 

 that I wondered at the authors' mis- 

 givings on the subject, and wrote to 

 interrogate Dr. Falconer previous to 

 ptitting the present page to press. Dr. 

 F., however, assures me that the frag- 

 ment undoubtedly does not belong to 

 that animal ; but, as Lieuts. Baker and 

 Durand had rightly conjectured, to a new 

 pachydermatous animal, to which Capt. 

 Cautley and himself have from other 

 specimens given the name of Choerothe- 

 rium; " the engraving is imperfect, and 

 so much like the hippopotamus that it 

 might easily be mistaken. The differ- 

 ence in the original tooth, however, is well 

 marked. There is no real trefoil on it ; 

 the appearance is spurious ; the plane of 



wearing is oblique ; the spur is strongly 

 bifid ; and the coUines, or mammilhiry 

 processes, are wide apart." — J. P.' In 

 another paper on Sewalik fossils, pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Baker and Durand, in 

 the Journ. Asiat. Soc. for May 1836 (vol. 

 V. p. 293), thf opinion is expressed that 

 the Choerutherium of Falconer ' is a new 

 species of Aimiracotherimn , a view which, 

 in the following memoir, Dr. F. opposes. 

 In a manuscript ' Synopsis of Fossils 

 from the Sewahk Hills,' by Dr. F., I find 

 the following: — ' Teiraconodon (or Chce- 

 r other ium) grand is, Nobis, Dadoopoorcol- 

 lection.' There can be no doubt, then, 

 that the fossil described as 21 traconodon 

 was the same as Chcerothcrium, and this 

 opinion is now corroborated by Sir Proby 

 Cautley, who has a perfect remembrance 

 of the specimen, and has carefully pe- 

 rused the memoir. It is somewhat sur- 

 prising that this memoir, which was 

 probably written about the year 1836, 

 was never published, and that the fossil 

 is not figured in the Fauna Antiqua Si- 

 valensis. In a letter, however, written by 

 Dr. Falconer to Capt. Cautley, in Janu- 

 ary 18J:4, I find the following: — 'We 

 must have a Chcerotherivm, for Agassiz 

 quotes it under our authority in his 

 " Nomenelator Zoologieus." ' The figure 

 is taken from a drawing by a native 

 artist, labelled ' The Dadoopoor Touth,' 

 and found among Dr. Falconer's papers. 

 What has become of the fossil, I have 

 been unable to ascertain. — [Ed.] 



