SIVATHEKIUM GIGANTEUM. 247 



XII. SIVA.THEEIUM GIGANTEUM. 



A New Fossil Euminant Genus, prom the Valley op 



MURKUNDA, IN THE SeWALIK BrANCH OP THE SUB- 

 HlMALATAN MOUNTAINS.' 



BY HUGH FALCONER, M.D., AND CAPTAIN P. T. CAUTLEY. 



The fossil wliicL. we are about to describe forms a new ac- 

 cession to extinct zoology. This circumstance alone would 

 give much interest to it. But, in addition, the large size sur- 

 passing the rhinoceros, the family of mammalia to which it 

 belongs, and the forms of structure which it exhibits, render 

 the Sivatherium one of the most remarkable of the past 

 tenants of the globe that have hitherto been detected in the 

 more recent strata. 



Of the numerous fossil mammiferous genera discovered 

 and established b}^ Cuvier, all were confined to the Pachy- 

 dermata. The species belonging to other families have all 

 their living representatives on the earth. Among the rumi- 

 nantia, no remarkable deviation from existing types has 

 hitherto been discovered, the fossil being closely allied to 

 living species. The isolated position, however, of the giraffe 

 and the CamelidoB made it probable that certain genera have 

 become extinct which formed the connecting links between 

 them and the other genera of the family, and further be- 

 tween the Euminantia and the Pachydermata. In the Siva- 

 therium^ we have a ruminant of this description connecting 



' This memoir is reprinted from the 

 ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xix. p. 1. 1836. 

 Different views of the cranium of the 

 Sivatherium are given in the two last 

 published plates of the ' Fauna Antiqua 



Brjpiov, hellita. The Sewcdik or Sub- 

 Himalayan range of hills is considered 

 in the Hindoo mythology as the Lntiah 

 or edge of the roof of Siva's dwelling in 

 the Himalayah, and hence they are called 



Sivalensis ' (xci. and xcii). Four other : the Sim-cda, or Sih-ala, which by an easy 



plates, not published, illustrate the 

 remaining parts of the skeleton. The 

 bones of the cranium, including the 

 lower jaw, are also figured by Royle in 

 his ' Illustrations of the Botany of the 

 Himalayahs,' vol. ii. Plate vi.— [Ed.] 



2 We have named the fossil Sivathe- 

 rium, from Siva, the Hindoo god, and 



transition of sound became tlie Seu'ctlik 

 of the English. The fossil has been dis- 

 covered in a tract which may be included 

 in the Scwalik range, and we have given 

 the name of Sivatherium to it, to com- 

 memorate tliis remarkable formation 

 so rich in new animals. Another deri- 

 vation of the name of the liills, as ex- 



