110 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



transverse crests, and a small cone between them. In the 

 lower they are formed into a double crescent, but without collar, 

 or neck, at the base. The last has three crescents. The head 

 is of an oblong form, and does not indicate the existence of a 

 proboscis. The composition of the tarsus is the same as in the 

 camel. 



This extraordinary genus, to which there is nothing analo- 

 gous in existing nature, is subdivided by the Baron into three 

 subgenera : the Anoplotheria, properly so called, in which 

 the anterior molars are tolerably thick, and the hinder ones in 

 the lower-jaw have their crescents with a simple crest ; the 

 XiPHODONS,in which the anterior molars are slender and tren- 

 chant, and the hinder ones below have, opposite the concavity 

 of each of their crescents, a point which, in the course of wear, 

 also takes the form of a crescent, so that then the crescents are 

 double, as in the ruminants; and the Dichobunes, whose 

 exterior crescents are also pointed in the commencement, and 

 which have, on their back-molars in the lower-jaw, points 

 arranged in pairs. 



The Anoplotherium commune, so called from its remains 

 being the most usually found, was an animal about the height 

 of a wild boar, but much more elongated in form, and bearing 

 a very long and thick tail. Its proportions much resembled 

 those of the otter, but on a larger scale. It seems probable 

 that it swam well, and frequented the lakes, in the bottom of 

 which its bones have been incrusted by the gypsum there 

 deposited. There is another, a little smaller, but in other 

 respects similar to the last, and called by the Baron, An. Secun- 

 darium. 



As yet but one xiphodon is known. This the Baron for- 

 merly called An. Medium^ but has finally given it the epithet 

 of ^n. Gracile, from the peculiar elegance of its proportions. 

 It was a remarkable animal, of the size and form of the gazelle. 

 The lightness of its form causes M. Cuvier to conjecture that 

 this species lived after the manner of the deer and antelopes ; 



