FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 83 



From these two blocks, M. Cuvier obtained nearly all the 

 teeth, which were found in all respects similar to those of the 

 hippopotamus, except that they were one-half smaller in all 

 their dimensions. Certain fragments of the jaw showed indi- 

 cations of that crotchet so characteristic in the lower jaw of the 

 hippopotamus. An astragalus, a scaphoid bone, a portion of 

 the humerus, another of the femur, a part of the pelvis, also 

 exhibit analogous conformations, but of smaller dimensions, 

 proportional to those of the teeth. The state of dentition and 

 ossification sufficiently proved that this animal was adult, and ' 

 consequently belonged to a species distinct from that which in- 

 habits the South African rivers. 



Some remains of an animal, which the Baron calls the middle 

 fossil hippopotamus, were found in a department of the Maine 

 and Loire, in a calcareous tufa, apparently the production of 

 fresh water. 



These fragments were not much larger than their analogous 

 parts in the little hippopotamus ; but as, in other respects, they 

 had no more resemblance to them than to those of the great 

 hippopotamus, there is no doubt of their having belonged to a 

 diflPerent species ; at the same time their relation to the hippo- 

 potamus is sufficiently marked to refer them to that genus. 

 Some other teeth were found in France, which seem to indicate 

 a species bordering on the hippopotamus, but smaller than the 

 swine ; but the Baron did not pass any definitive judgment 

 concerning them, for want of other bones. 



The Fossil Rhinoceros. 



Singular as is the genus of the rhinoceros, it is yet less iso- 

 lated in the animal kingdom than that of the elephant. It is 

 nearly allied in its osteology to the daman, the tapir, and the 

 horse ; and among the fossils there are many genera to which 

 it exhibits a partial approximation. 



The fossil remains of the rhinoceros, though not quite so 

 numerous as those of the elephant, are yet extremely abun- 



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