1324 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



Family Anthracotheriid^. — In this family the dental formula 



is, with one exception, /. --, C. -, Pm. -, 



3 i 4 



M. -• the upper true 



molars (fig. 1199) nave broad, low crowns, with five columns, three 

 of which are situated on the anterior and two on the posterior lobe ; 

 the columns in both upper and lower molars have a more or less 

 distinctly selenodont structure ; and the mandible has a descend- 

 ing flange at the angle. The Anthracotheres were probably in 

 appearance somewhat between a Pig and a Hippopotamus, and 

 doubtless dwelt in swamps and marshes. In the type genus An- 

 thracotherium (fig. 1197) the selenodont structure of the teeth is 

 less marked than in the next genus, with which it agrees in having 

 four digits to each foot. 



The species which approaches nearest to Chceropotamns in the structure 

 of its molars is the small A. silistrense of the lower Siwaliks of India ; 

 but the still smaller A. Gresslyi (fig. 1197) from the Upper Eocene of 

 Switzerland and Hampshire, agrees with that genus in having a diastema 



Fig. 1 197. — Anthracotheriiim Gresslyi. The left half of the palate and the upper cheek- 

 dentition; from the Upper Eocene of Hordwell, Hampshire. 



between the first and second upper premolars, and in the absence of the 

 first lower premolar. In most of the other species all the cheek-teeth were 

 in contact. This genus commenced in the Middle Eocene of Promina 

 in Dalmatia, where it is represented by A. dalmatinmn, which has been 

 made the type of the genus Prominatheriumj it was abundant in the 

 Quercy Phosphorites and Lower Miocene of Europe, where it was re- 

 presented by species like A. magnum, A. valdense of Lausanne, and A. 

 illyricum of Tuscany, which attained the size of a Rhinoceros. It was 

 represented in the Middle Miocene of France by A. Cuvieri, after which 

 it died out in Europe, although it survived in India till the Upper Mio- 

 cene, where it is known by the large A. hyoftotamoides and the small A. 

 silistrense. It is unknown in America. 



