316 



RHINOCEROS. 



Rhinoceros leptorhinus from Clacton, also to Rhinoceros 

 megarhinus. ' 



Jager, in 1839, proposed the provisional name of Rhino- 

 ceros Kirchbergense for certain remains discovered in sand-pits 

 in the pleistocene (' Diluvial-boden ') deposits of Kirchberg 

 in Wurtemberg. The materials were limited to one lower 

 and two detached npper molars ; and the comparison of them 

 was confined to corresponding teeth of Aceratherium incisivum, 

 of the Rhinoceros tichorhinus occurring at Cannstadt, and of 

 the two-horned Rhinoceros of the Cape. No attempt was 

 made by Jager to distinguish the Kirchberg form from the lep- 

 torhine Rhinoceros of Cuvier, the R. elatus of Croizet, or the 

 R. megarhinus of Christol. 2 The name proposed by Jager 

 has therefore strictly no claim to be regarded otherwise than 

 as a conjectural determination ; and at a later period he 

 abandoned it, having adopted the opinion of Owen, that the 

 Kirchberg Rhinoceros was identical with the supposed Rhi- 

 noceros leptorhinus, discovered at Clacton, as described hi the 

 ' British Fossil Mammalia.' 



In 1841 Kaup brought out, in the ' Akten der Urwelt,' his 

 description of the same nominal species, but under the new 

 designation of Rhinoceros Merckii of Jager, who, at the 

 instance of his friend Kaup, consented to the substitution 

 of this specific name, both as less open to objection on the 

 score of local derivation, and as a tribute to the memory of 

 Merck, its earliest indicator, who, towards the close of the 

 last century, made the first important step towards the dis- 

 tinction of the Mammoth from existing species. Kaup col- 

 lected additional materials from various localities in the 

 valley of the Rhine, and extended their comparison, beyond 

 what was attempted by Jager, to supposed remains of the 

 Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Cuvier. The conclusions at which 

 he arrived were, that Rhinoceros Merckii was a distinct species, 

 of the size of the two-horned Rhinoceros of the Cape ; that 

 it belonged, jointly with Rhinoceros Africanus (R. bicornis) 

 and Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Cuvier, to a particular division 

 of the genus, characterized by the form of the molar teeth 

 and the absence of incisors ; and that it had been a con- 

 temporary of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Rhi- 

 noceros leptorhinus, and other forms of the so-called Diluvial 

 Period. 3 



The next step of importance in the history of Rhinoceros 



1 It was subsequently referred by Dr. 

 Falconer to Bhin. Etruscus. — [Ed.] 



2 The lower jaw, in the reference to 

 fig- 6, tab. xvi., is attributed by Jager to 

 Rhm. tichorhinus. 



3 In his last work (Beitrage, 1 Heft. 

 p. 4), Kaup gives up Bhin. Merckii for 

 Bhin. leptorhinus. 



