42 Mr. Owen on Remains of the Charopotamus , ^c, 



ing the second spurious molar and the incisors, if they really exist in the genus : 

 the canine (?) is broken in the socket. 



The fragments of the Chcsropotamus which Cuvier* describes, consist of an in- 

 complete base of the skull with six molar teeth on each side (PI. IV. fig. 3 and 

 3a), and a small portion of a ramus of the lower jaw, with the canine (?) and two 

 spurious molars. 



The form of the teeth and the flattened surface of the glenoid cavity, afford 

 sufficient proof of the pachydermatous nature of the animal, and its close alliance 

 to the genus Sus. But the breadth of the glenoid cavity and the expansion of 

 the zygomatic arches are greater than in any known species of Hog ; the Peccari 

 (Dicotyles) in these respects, as in the dental details, especially in the proportion 

 and direction of its canine teeth, approaches nearest to the fossil. 



Now the points in which the Cuvierian fossils prove that the Chceropotamus 

 deviates from the Peccari, are those which indicate a nearer approximation in 

 the extinct genus to the carnivorous type ; and it is of great interest to find that 

 the ramus of the jaw, so fortunately extracted in an almost entire state from the 

 Isle of Wight strata, exhibits a structure, in the prolongation backwards of the 

 angle of the jaw, which has hitherto been found to characterize, almost ex- 

 clusively, the carnivorous Mammalia. Certain it is that no known pachydermatous 

 or other ungulate species of Mammal presents this conformation. The figures (1, 

 la, and 2, PI. IV.) preclude the necessity of a detailed description of this process; it 

 is more compressed and deeper than in the Bear, Dog or Cat tribe, and is not bent 

 inwards in the way which peculiarly characterizes the marsupial jaws, and which so 

 neatly distinguishes the Stonesfield Phascolothere. The condyloid process in the 

 Chcsropotamus is raised higher above the angle of the jaw than in the true Car- 

 nivora, and it is less convex than in the Hog or Peccari. In the size of the 

 coronoid process the Peccari exceeds the true Hogs ; and in that respect, as well 

 as in the form and position of its canine teeth, makes a nearer approach to the car- 

 nivorous type; but in the Charopotamus the coronoid process is still more developed 

 in correspondence with the greater bulk of the temporal muscle, the size of which is 

 indicated by the span of the zygomatic arches. In the wavy outline of the in- 

 ferior border of the lower jaw, the Peccari alone, amongst the Hog tribe, resembles 

 the Ch(sropotamus. The two detached molars of the lower jaw described by 

 Cuvier, and which he compares with the third and fourth molars of the Baby- 

 roussa, are the fourth and fifth, or penultimate and antepenultimate molars, count- 

 ing backwards, of the Chcsropotamus, and correspond with the penultimate and 

 antepenultimate grinders of the Peccari. The last molar of the lower jaw, in both 

 the Peccari and Babyroussa, differs from the preceding in having two accessory, 

 * Ossem. Fossiles, Ed. 1822, vol. iii. p. 260 ; PI. Ixviii. li. 



