HISTORY OF THE fTOXODONTIA 487 



this group to the Proboscidea,' but the assignment is im- 

 doubtedly erroneous, as is shown by the character of the skull 

 and skeleton. 



The skull, hitherto unknown, was obtained by the Amherst 

 College Expedition to Patagonia and its description by Pro- 

 fessor F. B. Loomis is anxiously awaited. In advance of that, 

 he has pubUshed a brief account, with a figure. This skull 

 was long and narrow, with very short facial region and nasal 

 bones so shortened that the nasal canal passed almost vertically 

 down through the head, as in the elephants, and there must 

 have been a considerable proboscis. Despite this great modi- 

 fication, the skull was plainly of the jtoxodont and not of the 

 proboscidean type. The legs were extremely massive and 

 the fore legs were considerably shorter than the hind, with 

 such a difference in length that the head must have been carried 

 low, as in the Pampean ^Toxodon. The upper arm and thigh 

 were much longer than the fore-arm and lower leg respectively. 

 The humerus was immensely broadened, especially the lower 

 end, and the processes for muscular attachment were extremely 

 prominent. The femur was long, with broad and flattened 

 shaft, and had no trace of the third trochanter, quite strongly 

 resembUng the thigh-bone of an elephant, which, as we have 

 repeatedly seen, is the type more or less closely approximated 

 by all of the very heavy ungulates. In the standing posi- 

 tion, the femur was in nearly the same vertical Une as the tibia 

 and the whole leg must have been almost perfectly straight, 

 with the knee-joint free from the body. The short and massive 

 fore-arm bones were coossified, at least in some individuals, 

 as were the equally heavy bones of the lower leg, the fibula 

 being exceptionally stout. Little is known of the feet, but that 

 little renders probable the inference that they were short, 

 columnar and five-toed. 



The Eocene representatives of the Pyrotheria are known 

 only from very fragmentary material. ^Propyrotherium, of 

 the Astraponotus Beds, was smaller than the Deseado genus 



