108 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



thicker in proportion. It might have been about thirty inches 

 in height, and of all the fossil animals of the Parisian gypsum 

 most resembled the tapir in its conformation, though inferior 

 in size. Of this species there is a head in very great preserva- 

 tion, and the superior and inferior extremities. 



The broad-footed Palceotherium {Pal. Latum.) — ^The fore- 

 arm and the feet alone were found of this animal, which in 

 general conformation seemed exactly opposed to Pal. Medium. 

 From the shortness and breadth of its extremities, the Baron 

 judges that it must have been singularly slow and clumsy in its 

 movements. It appeared to hold a similar place in this family 

 with the phascolome among the marsupialia. It was probably 

 not more than from four-and-twenty to six-and-twenty inches 

 in height, but its proportions were as large, and its members 

 as thick, as those of the preceding species. 



The short PalcEotherium {Pal. Curtum.) — M. Cuvier col- 

 lected of this species only the head and some portions of the 

 feet, by which he judges that it very much resembled thejoa/^- 

 otherium latum, but was considerably smaller, not being larger 

 than a sheep. 



The small Palceotherium (Pal. Minus) was found almost 

 complete at Pantin, and many lower jaws and feet referable to 

 it were found elsewhere. The pelvis, the sacrum, and the 

 tail remained incomplete, and also the top of the head. But 

 the form of the last may be well presumed from the heads of 

 the other species. " Could this animal," says M. Cuvier, " be 

 as easily re-animated as its bones have been collected, we should 

 behold a tapir smaller than the roe-buck, with light and slender 

 limbs, for such, to a certainty, was the figure of the animal.'" 



The very small Palceotherium (Pal. Minimum) was only 

 about the size of a hare, and had very small and slight feet. 

 Nothing has been found of it but some bones of the extremities. 

 A fragment of the lower jaw of the palaeotherium, furnished 

 with teeth, was found at Puy, in Velay, in a gypsous stratum, 

 by M. Bertrand-Roux. But this single fragment was not 



