SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES 99 



the horse although very similar in shape, while the bocly has 

 some resemblance in general outline to the rhinoceros. The 

 head is small but the body is heavy and is supported by heavy 

 limbs and feet. The fore limbs are larger than the hind 

 limbs and this gives to the animal a corresponding pose. 

 The feet, terminating in bifid, clawlike bones are especially 

 distinctive, combining in peculiar manner characteristics of 

 the ungulates and apparent characteristics of the Carni- 

 vores, and of animals accustomed to digging. (Plates 17 

 and 32 ) . Osborn says, "Moropus may be characterized as a 

 forest-loving, slow moving animal, not improbably fre- 

 quently rather swampy ground. The small head, relatively 

 long neck, high fore quarters, short, downwardly sloping 

 back, straight and elongated limbs, suggest a profile contour 

 only paralleled by the forest-loving okapi among existing 

 mammals. The foot structure, of course, is radically dif- 

 ferent from that of the okapi, but we should not regard it 

 as fossorial, or of the digging type, because it is not corre- 

 lated with a fossorial type of fore limb. It would appear 

 that these great fore claws, in which the phalanges were 

 sharply flexed, were used in pulling down the branches of 

 trees and also as powerful weapons of defense." The illu- 

 strations give a better idea of the animal than can readily 

 be obtained by simple description. 



TAPIRIDAE 



The present day tapirs, like the horse, are the descend- 

 ants of a very ancient family. Unlike the horse, however, 

 specialization in the tapir has not advanced to a high degree, 

 and so far as foot structure is concerned, and to a consider- 

 able extent tooth structure also, the modern representatives 

 of the tapir are in much the same condition as the early 

 ancestral horses. They are very similar to the Lophiodonts 

 just mentioned. Indeed, these animals and the ancestral 

 tapirs show so many characteristics of such decided similar- 

 ity or of such a vague nature as to render their separation 

 and classification a matter of difficulty and some uncer- 

 tainty. 



Fossil remians of the Tapiridae are comparatively rare. 

 They, however, have had a wide geographical distribution 

 and are known to be present in rocks of nearly every period 

 since earliest Tertiary time. Three species, described from 



