1470 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



inus. The Asiatic genus Semnopithecus is known by remains of 

 existing species in the Indian Pleistocene, and by extinct forms in 

 the Siwaliks of the same country, and also in the Lower Pliocene of 

 France and Italy. Mesopithecus, from the Lower Pliocene of Greece 

 and Hungary, is an extinct genus allied in cranial characters to 

 Semnopithecus^ but in the structure of the limbs approximating to 

 Macacus. The genus Cynocephalus, now confined to Africa, and 

 characterised by the long and projecting facial region and the nearly 

 vertical position of the orbits (fig. 1352), is found fossil in the Plio- 

 cene Siwaliks of India, and in the Pleistocene of Southern India and 

 Algeria ; and thus indicates the intimate relations of the Indian and 

 African faunas. Oreopithecus, from the Middle Miocene of Italy, 

 was probably allied to the preceding genus, but only an immature 

 mandible is known. 



Family Simiid^e. — In the Simiidce, which includes the Gibbons, 

 Orangs, Chimpanzees, and Gorillas, the tubercles of the cheek-teeth 

 (fig. 1353) are low and blunt, and the angles of their crowns are 



more or less rounded off, and the 

 third lower true molar has no hind 

 talon. The canines are large, and 

 the hallux is opposable. The Gib- 

 bons are represented in a fossil state 

 in the .Pleistocene of Borneo by a 

 species of Hylobates, and by another 

 from the Middle Miocene of France 

 which may be included in the same 

 genus, although separated by some 

 under the name of Pliopithecus. 

 Dryopithecus, from the Middle Mio- 

 cene of France and the Lower 

 Miocene of Hessen-Darmstadt, was 

 a large Ape of the size of the Chim- 

 panzee, but with teeth resembling 

 those of the Gorilla. Lastly, the 

 Pliocene Siwaliks of India have 

 yielded a species of Anthropopithe- 

 cus (Troglodytes) apparently closely allied to the existing African 

 Chimpanzee ; while there are also indications in the same deposits 

 of a species of the Malayan genus Simia (Orang). A skull of the 

 existing species of Simia is shown in woodcut, fig. 1354. 



Family Hominid^e. — The last and highest family of the class 

 comprises only Man (Homo), and requires but little notice in this 

 work. It may, however, be observed that the teeth form a nearly 

 even horse-shoe-shaped series, without any diastema or marked 

 increase in the size of the canine, and are thus in striking contrast 



Fig. 1353. — Palatal aspect of the man- 

 dible of Hylobates antiquus ; from the 

 Middle Miocene of France. 



