408 



FOSSILS FROM PERIM ISLAND. 



Tlie DixLotherium of Eppelsheim is knowii to range througli 

 a very wide difference of size, dependent on sexual or indi- 

 vidual peculiarities, and several nominal species, chiefly 

 founded upon this character, have been described by authors. 

 But Dr. Kaup mforms me that he now admits but two species, 

 D. giganteum and D. Koenigii, as he regards all the rest, such 

 as D. Cuvieri, D. Bavaricum, D. proavum, &c., to be merely 

 dwarfed varieties, or females of Z>. giganteum. M. de Blain- 

 ville has arrived at nearly the same conclusion in his ' Osteo- 

 graphie.' It would be unsafe, therefore, to found any opinion 

 regarding the Indian fossil merely on a difference of size. 

 But, in addition to the larger dimensions, the very remark- 

 able peculiarities in the form of the jaw, indicated by its 

 great depth in front, the excessive width, massive form, and 

 circular outline in section behind, togetherwith the absence of 

 the flattening of the inner side, which is so marked in every 

 specimen of D. giganteum, taken in conjunction with the very 

 significant difierence in the thickness of the enamel, appear 

 to furnish the strongest evidence that the Indian fossil 

 belongs to a distinct species. It is to be kept in mind, also, 

 that all these differential characters tend, in a remarkable 

 manner, in the direction of greater afiinity with the Mastodon 

 giganteus. In corroboration of this view, it deserves to be 

 stated that of the numerous fossil Proboscidea discovered in 

 India we • have found that all the forms are specifically 

 distinct from those which occur in Em-ope. I have now no 

 hesitation in regarding both the Perim fossils to belong to 

 a distinct species of Dinotheritun, larger than the D. gigan- 

 teum., and more closely allied to the Mastodons, which, as 

 proposed in the preceding pages, may be called D. IncUcum.^ 



Note. — In the 'Athenseum,' No. 923, p, 662, there is an 

 abstract of a paper by Mr. A. Bettington, read to the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, on June 21 of this year, giving an account 

 of a finely-preserved cranium of a huge Ruminant, found by 

 that gentleman in Perim Island ; I have repeatedly seen the 

 specimen, which was exhibited at the anniversary meeting of 

 the Geological Society on February 1 7 last ; but as unpub- 

 lished material, which I had no authority to quote, I have not 

 felt at liberty to refer to it in the descrijjtions given in this 

 paper, Mr. Bettington institutes a comparison of his fossil with 



' In stating this, I use the plural pro- 

 noun tve, intending to intimate that the 

 opinion is one in which my colleague 

 Captain Cautley also concurs. 



* In 1867 remains of Dinotherkim 



■were discorered in the vaUey of the 

 Indus, below Attoek, by Lieut. Garnett, 

 and identified by Dr. Falconer. See 

 postea, p. 414. — [Ed.] 



