1338 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



is termed the brow-tine. The lateral digits are nearly always 

 present, and the distal extremities of the metapodials may be pre- 

 served. The existing Deer have been divided into the Plesiometa- 

 carpalia (Cervus and Cervulus), and the Telemetacarpalia (Alces, 

 Capreolus, Cariacus, and Rangifer) ; the former, which mainly in- 

 habit the Old World, characterised by the retention of the proximal, 

 and the latter of the distal extremities of the lateral metacarpals. 

 As in many analogous instances, the development of the antlers of 

 the individual is paralleled by their development in the family ; 

 since we find that many of the earlier members were totally un- 

 provided with these appendages, and that their extreme complexity 

 in the more specialised forms was not acquired until a late period 

 in the geological scale. 



The least specialised members of this family form the closely 

 allied extinct genera Amphitragulus and Palceomeryx. In the former 

 there are four lower premolars, and antlers were entirely absent ; the 

 crowns of the molars being low. The largest species was somewhat 

 bigger than the Musk-Deer, and the genus is characteristic of the 

 Lower Miocene of the Continent. Palceomeryx (Dre?7iotherium, 

 Dicroceros, and Micromeryx being included) has only three lower 

 premolars, except in one species ; and the upper true molars (fig. 

 1 2 13), like those of Amphitragulus, were brachydont, and had no 

 distinct accessory column between the inner 

 crescents. In one species (P. Feignouxi) the 

 lateral metacarpals were perfect, although very 

 slender, and the males had long upper canines 

 like those of the Musk-Deer, but no antlers ; 

 this species being the earliest, and occurring 

 in the Lower Miocene of France. In P. fur- 

 catus {Dicroceros elegans), of the Middle Mio- 

 Fi g . ^T-Left upper cene ' sim P le antlers were, however, present, 

 true molar of Palceomeryx and the canines were apparently small. P. 

 &%?. en Bojani, of the French Middle Miocene, and 



P. sivalensis (fig. 12 13), of the Pliocene of 

 India, were as large as a Red Deer ; ' and the latter species, together 

 with another from the Pliocene of China, were the last representa- 

 tives of the genus, of which the latest appearance in Europe is in 

 the Middle Miocene of Sansan, in France. Platyprosopus, from the 

 latter beds, is distinguished by the great projection of the angle of 

 the mandible. To the existing Oriental genus Cervulus, in which 

 the molars are more hypsodont, and simple antlers mounted on a 

 long pedicle are present, may be provisionally referred C. dicrano- 

 ceros (fig. 1 2 14, a), of the Pliocene of Eppelsheim. There is some 

 uncertainty as to the earliest appearance of the genus Cervus, but it 

 not improbably dates from the Middle Miocene, and was abundant 



