SUCCESSIVE MAMMALIAN FAUNAS 241 



but two toes. The foreodonts were present in great num- 

 bers, both small and large forms; except for bodily stature 

 and modifications of the head, they all looked very much alike ; 

 \Merycochosrus, with its incipient proboscis, here made its 

 first appearance. The last representatives of a family (fHyper- 

 tragulidse) of small and graceful artiodactyls are found in this 

 formation. One of these {'\Syndyoceras, see Fig. 215, p. 403), 

 an animal considerably larger than the existing Musk-Deer, was 

 in its way even more bizarre-looking than the fchalicotheres ; 

 with an antelope-Uke head, it had four horns, one pair over 

 the eyes, curving inward, and a shorter pair, with outward 

 curvature, on the muzzle. Another genus {'fHypertragulus) 

 was very much smaller and very slender. 



The camels were beginning to diversify and give rise to 

 several phyla. One of the genera {]Protomeryx) , which did 

 not much exceed a sheep in size, probably represented the main 

 stock, which led to the camels and llamas of to-day. A second 

 {\Stenomyilus) was a still smaller animal, with remarkably long 

 and slender legs, and might be called a "gazelle-camel," 

 while a third {\Oxydactylus, see Fig. 209, p. 392), which was larger 

 and apparently the beginning of the fgiraffe-camels, was note- 

 worthy for its long neck. All of these lower Miocene camels 

 had deer-like hoofs, the characteristic pad or cushion which gives 

 such an exceptional appearance to the feet of modern llamas 

 and camels not being fully developed till a later period. A very 

 important new element in the North American fauna was the 

 appearance of the first deer {^Blastomeryx) , which came in the 

 latter part of the Arikaree stage and were the forerunners of 

 a renewed immigration from the Old World, which had been 

 broken off during the upper OUgocene. This, however, is a 

 disputed point ; Professor Osborn and Dr. Matthew beheve 

 that these animals were truly indigenous and derived from a 

 long line of American ancestry. The same genus continued 

 through the middle Miocene, as we have already seen, and 

 therefore no further description of it is called for. 



