TERTIARY AGE. 517 



bear-like Carnivore, the Arctocyon primcevus Blv. ; and this is, as yet, 

 the earliest of known Tertiary Mammals. But the greater part of 

 Eocene Mammalian remains belong to the Tapir group. 



The earliest discoveries were made by Cuvier. The bones were 

 gathered in the vicinity of Paris, from the Middle and Upper Eocene ; 

 and a large number of extinct quadrupeds came to a new existence 

 through his researches. Among those of the Middle Eocene, the 

 Paleothere (named from n-aAaios, ancient, and Orjpiov, wild beast), related 

 to the Tapir in its elongated nose and other respects, is one of the most 

 characteristic. The largest species of the genus, Paloeotherium mag- 

 num Cuv., was of the size of a horse, and a smaller, P. curtum, Cuv., 

 not larger than a sheep. The P. magnum, as restored by Cuvier, had 

 the stout form of the Tapir ; but a skeleton, discovered in 1874, re- 

 ferred to this species, has the long neck, and nearly the figure, of a 

 Lama. 



With the Paleothere, there existed other tapir-like beasts, of the 

 genus Lophiodon, and others. 



In the Upper Eocene of Paris, occur the remains of Anoplotheres 

 and Xiphodons, a group related to the Ruminants in their two toes, but 



Fig. 927. 



Xiphodon (Anoplotherium) gracile, as restored by Cuvier. 



at the same time having some characters of the Hogs ; the Xiphodons 

 were of slender form (Fig. 927). The species were remarkable for 

 having the set of teeth as even in outline as in Man, the eye-tooth 

 having nothing of the elongation common in brutes and a striking 

 part of the armature of Hogs and Carnivores, and hence its name, 

 from avcnrXos, unarmed, and Orjpiov. The number of teeth is forty -four, 

 the complete series, it including, in either half of either jaw, three in- 

 cisors, four premolars, or milk teeth, and four molars. With the 

 Anoplothere, a related but still more hog-like kind was the Chceropota- 

 mus. There were also Paleotheres and others of the Tapir tribe ; and, 



