26 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



Pier-case 9. discovered in the Paris Gypsum and studied by Cuvier, who 

 Table-ease rightly recognised many points of resemblance in it to the 

 living tapirs, and published in 1825 the accompanying 

 restored sketch of the animal (Fig. 15). As already men- 

 tioned, in fact, all the Eocene Perissodactyla are adapted for 

 dwelling in marshes, like the tapirs ; and they are preceded 

 at the base of the Eocene by five-toed animals, like Phena- 

 codus (Pier-case 9), which is one of the small-brained Con- 

 dylarthra to be noticed below (p. 48). 



The gradual changes in the feet, teeth, and skulls of the 

 horse-like hoofed animals, as they are traced through the 

 Tertiary period, are also illustrated by a series of plaster 



Fig. 15. — Restoration of the skeleton and outline of the body of Palsso- 

 theriwm magnum, from the Upper Eocene; about one-thirtieth nat. 

 size. (After Cuvier.) i 



casts and models arranged in a Case in the Gallery of 

 Domesticated Animals behind the Great Hall. 

 Pier-case 9. The distribution of the tapirs or Tapiridse in the existing 

 world is very curious, and has only been explained by the 

 study of fossils. They occur exclusively in the Malayan 

 region of Asia, and in the tropical parts of America, not in 

 any intervening country. In the Pliocene and Miocene 

 periods, however, they ranged over most of Asia, Europe, 

 and North America. They are thus a vanishing race, which 

 has survived only at the two extremities of its former area 

 of distribution. A fine palate of Tapirus priscus, from the 

 Lower Pliocene of Eppelsheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, is exhibited 

 in Pier-case 9. There are also isolated teeth of Tapirus from 

 China and from the English Eed Crag. 



