SUBORDER D ARTIODACTYLA 203 



Subfamily 5. Giraffinae Gray.^ 



Large long -limbed quadrupeds, with elongated skull, either hornless or with short 

 paired simple frontal bosses, without lachr^jmal fossae, and with small orbits completely 

 surrounded by bone. Bones of cranial roof pneumatic. Superior canines absent ; 

 inferior canines bilobate. Cheek teeth low, sim,ple, compressed, deer-like. Lateral 

 metapodials and digits wholly atrophied. 



Living in Central Africa. Fossil in the Lower Pliocene of southern 

 Europe, Persia, India and China. 



Helladotherium Gaudry (Fig. 282). Skull without frontal protuberances. 

 Neck moderately long. Inferior premolars and molars deep and narrow. 



Fig. 282. 

 Helladotherium, duvernoyi Gaudry and Lartet. Skeleton restored by Gaudry. Greatly reduced. 



Fore and hind limbs subequal in length. Lower Pliocene ; Pikermi, Greece ; 

 Veles, Macedonia ; Baltavar, Hungary ; Taraklia, S. Russia ; and Maragha, 

 Persia. A similar but generically distinct skull from the Siwalik probably 

 pertains to Hydaspitherium grande, which belongs to the Sivatheriinae. 



Palaeotragus Gaudry. Skull low, with horns placed far in front. Teeth 

 robust and low. Lower Pliocene ; Pikermi. 



Samotherium Forsyth Major {Alcicephahis Rodler and Weithofer) (Fig. 283). 

 Male skull with a pair of obtuse osseous protuberances above the orbits. 

 Teeth robust and low. Neck shorter and skeleton stouter than in the giraffe. 

 Lower Pliocene ; Pikermi, Samos, S. Russia, Persia and China. Essentially 

 identical with Okapia living in the Congo forest. 



Camelopardalis Schreber. Giraffe. A pair of short bony prominences 

 on the suture between the frontal and parietal bones and a protuberance 

 on the nasal ridge. Premolars very complicated. Molars rather deep. 



1 Major, C. I. Forsyth, Okapi, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend., 1902, pp. 73, 339. 



