MAMMALIA. 37 



reached Asia, as proved by numerous remains from the Pier-case 

 Siwalik Formation of India in Pier-case 14. Case M 



The giraffes, or Giraffidse, have always been Old World stand li. 

 quadrupeds. Though now confined to Africa, they also 

 ranged over the greater part of Asia and southern Europe in 

 the Lower Pliocene period, as shown by fossils from China, 

 India, and Greece in Pier-case 14. Even the long-limbed 

 and long-necked Giraffa itself was in existence at that time, but 

 it seems to have been less common than the antelope-shaped 

 relatives of the okapi, which has only escaped extinction by 

 retreating to the recesses of the Semliki forest. Samotherium, 

 with a pair of horns only in the male (Fig. 27), is known by 



Fig. 27.— Skull and lower jaw of an extinct Okapi (Samotherium boissieri), 

 from the Lower Pliocene of the Isle of Samos ; one-sixth nat. size. 

 (Case M.) 



many remains from the Lower Pliocene of Pikermi (Greece), 

 the Isle of Samos, and Maragha (Persia), and it is scarcely 

 distinguishable from the okapi. The original skull of this 

 animal, described by Dr. Forsyth Major, is exhibited in a 

 special Case marked M. Hdladotherium is a larger and 

 stouter relative, of which the female at least is hornless, 

 represented by numerous fragments from Pikermi. Sivathe- 

 rium, from the Siwalik Formation of India, is equally stout, 

 and the male bears two pairs of horns, one simple pair being 

 on the frontal bones, a large expanded pair further back 

 (Fig. 28). The actual skull, detached horn-cores, limb-bones, 

 and other remains of this animal are exhibited in Pier-case 

 14, while a restored model of the head is mounted on a 

 separate pedestal (N). Hydaspitherium and Bramatherium 



