466 Scientific Intelligence. 



indicate that formerly portions of the surrounding country were 

 wooded. Along the northern side of the lake nearly the whole of 

 the vertebrate remains have been gathered from beds of middle and 

 upper Eocene age. Of these vertebrates all classes except the Am- 

 phibia have been found, though bird fragments are referable to one 

 species only. By far the most abundant are the Mammalia, which 

 are followed in numbers by the reptiles. 



The Mammalia are divided into three sections; (l) the land 

 mammals which seem to be truly endemic to the Ethiopian 

 region ; (2) forms of which close allies occur in other regions in 

 approximately contemporary deposits ; and (3) the aquatic mam- 

 mals. It seems probable that some of the, last are also of endemic 

 origin, having arisen from native land mammals. 



Of the first series, curiously enough, all are ungulates of the 

 less specialized orders. The most notable of these is Arsinoi- 

 therium, a most bizarre creature of elephantine proportions and 

 massiveness, and which bore upon the snout two great upward 

 and forwardly projecting horn cores, while above the orbits were 

 two more though of much smaller dimensions. Andrews, while 

 expressing doubt as to the relationships of Arsinoitherium, thinks 

 that it may have originated from the same stock that gave rise 

 to the Hyracoidea. The latter are quite abundant in theFayum, 

 but remains throw little or no light upon the history of the 

 group. 



The light thrown upon the past history of the Proboscidians is 

 the feature of the greatest scientific interest because of the ex- 

 treme deficiency of our previous knowledge of the order, as none 

 were known older than the Miocene before the Fayum forms 

 came to light. Osborn, among others, had pointed out the pro- 

 bability that Africa would be found to be the original home of the 

 Proboseidea, the Hyracoidea, and several other families, believing 

 that a succession of migrations from Africa to Europe occurred, 

 notably at the end of the Eocene, at the beginning of the Miocene 

 and again in the earliest Pliocene. It was in the early Miocene 

 migration that the elephants passed out of Africa for the 

 first time. The earliest known proboscidian is Moeritherium, 

 which occurs first in the Quaer-el-Sagha (middle Eocene) beds and 

 persists until the upper Eocene. This creature suggests the tapir 

 in size and general appearance, and while the dental formula is 

 almost complete, many elephantine characters are foreshadowed 

 in the skull. The next proboscidian genus is Palaeomastodon, of 

 which some of the smaller species are evidently intermediate 

 between Moeritherium and the later elephants. The larger Palseo- 

 mastodons were about the size of a half-grown Indian elephant 

 and were elephant-like in appearance except for the elongated 

 symphysis of the lower jaw, which was prolonged beyond the 

 skull and was covered only by the fleshy snout. The neck was 

 still somewhat long and the creature could reach the ground with 

 its lower incisors and with the probably prehensile muzzle. The 

 further evolution of the group is shown in Tetrabelodon from the 



