90 FOSSIL MAMxMALIA. 



counsellor to the Emperor of Russia, observed among the pre- 

 sents made to the University of Moscow, (of which he was pro- 

 fessor,) by the Princess Daschkaw, a portion of a jaw resem- 

 bling that of the fossil rhinoceros, but presenting very peculiar 

 characters. He soon perceived that it belonged to a different 

 animal, and published an account of it at Moscow in 1808, 

 and another in 1809. 



The general disposition of this jaw is nearly the same as that 

 of the fossil rhinoceros, and it has, Hkewise, in front, a pro- 

 minent part without teeth, but not quite so long as in the 

 rhinoceros. The branches where the teeth lay seemed more 

 convex. The lower edge forms an almost uniformly elliptical 

 curve, and does not form underneath a right line, and then an 

 angle, on which the ascending branch rises almost perpendicu- 

 larly, as in the rhinoceros. The coronoid apophyses seemed also 

 less elevated, and the ascending branch goes more obliquely 

 backward. The articular facet of the condyle is transverse, 

 rather cylindrical, and a little wider at the external edge, 

 nearly like the rhinoceros. 



In this jaw were found four molar teeth, increasing in size 

 from the first to the fourth, and the alveolus of a fifth was 

 just visible. These teeth are prismatic, like those of the horse 

 in his prime, and the bottom of their shaft not yet divided 

 into roots. The length of their coronal is double its width. 



, What distinguishes the elasmotherium from all known 

 animals is, that the laminae of these teeth form a very elevated 

 shaft, which grows like that of the horse, preserving a long 

 time its prismatic form, and that they descend vertically 

 through the entire extent of this shaft, not dividing into roots 

 until after a considerable time, while, in other aninials, they 

 unite promptly into a single osseous body which is itself 

 speedily divided into roots ; and also that the plates of enamel 

 are channelled over their entire elevation, and that their section 

 has its edges festooned like those of the transversal bands of 

 the molars of the Indian elephant. 



