196 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



describes and figures as tlie caniiie of Ch. Goldfussi, the 

 autliors consider that determination as problematical. It 

 seems to tbem to bear a resemblance in form rather to the 

 lower incisor of an animal allied to rhinoceros. They advance 

 these doubts with the utmost deference to the distinguished 

 author. 



Remarks on the Genus Anoplotherium. — The true Anoplo- 

 theria of Cuvier (of which A. commune may be regarded as 

 the type), together with the A. Sivalense and the Chalicothe- 

 rium (Anoplotherium ?) Goldfussi are allied, by their den- 

 tition, to Rhinoceros. The Dichobunes, A. leporinum, A. 

 murinum and A. obliquum, Cuvier arranges with considerable 

 doubt, and provisionally only, among the Anoplotheria. He 

 considers it not impossible that the two latter species were 

 small Ruminants. The A. cervinum of Professor Owen (Geol. 

 Trans. 2nd ser. vol. vi. p. 45), obtained by Mr. Pratt from 

 Binstead in the Isle of Wight (Idem. vol. iii. p. 451), is ad- 

 mitted on all hands to be exceedingly like a musk deer. 

 Such heterogeneous materials are too much for the limits of 

 any one genus. Cuvier imagmed the separation of the two 

 metacarpal bones to be a character limited to the Anoplo- 

 theria exchisively. He has also regarded the union of the 

 metacarpal bones as holding without exception in all the 

 ruminants ; and this law with respect to ruminants, though 

 empirical, he regards as equally certain with any conclusion 

 in physics or morals, and as a surer mark than all those of 

 Zadig (Disc. Prel. p. 49). > 



The authors, having had an opportunity of examining the 

 skeleton of an African ruminant, the Moschus aquaticus of 

 Ogilby, described in the ' Proceedings' of the Zoological 

 Society by that gentleman from a living specimen, found it 

 wanting in the above supposed essential character of the ru- 

 minants, and possessing the above supposed distinctive cha- 

 racter of Anoplotherian Pachyderms. Its metacarpals are 

 distinct along their whole length ; its foreleg, from the carpus 

 downwards, is undistmguishable from that of the peccary; 

 and its succentorial toes are as much developed as in the last- 

 mentioned animal. 



The deviation from the ordinary ruminant type, indicated 

 by the foot of this Moschus, is borne out by a series of modi- 

 fications in the construction of the head and in the bones of 

 the extremities and trunk, all tending in the direction of the 

 pachyderms. 



The authors believe the present to be the first announce- 

 ment of the existence of such an anomaly in any living ru- 



' See appendix to memoir on Chalkotlierium, No. II. — [Ed.] 



