358 PALEONTOLOGY. 



fore part of the tooth, as in that of Lophiodon ; but its outer 

 and inner ends rise higher, and appear as more distinct cones 

 or points ; the posterior ridge shews three points ; whence 

 the generic name of Coryphodon. 



Some lophiodontoid fossils from the lignites of Soissons 

 and Laon, and from the plastic clay of Meudon in France, 

 including the upper molar tooth figured in the chapter of the 

 " Eecherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles," entitled " Animaux 

 voisins de Tapirs," pi. vii., fig. 6, belong to the genus Cory- 

 phodon. Cuvier states that the entire skeleton was found, 

 indicative of an animal as long and almost as large as a bull. 

 Both the lower molar from Harwich, and the upper one from 

 Soissons, indicate an animal of at least double the size of the 

 American tapir. 



Professer Hebert has recently described a very instructive 

 series of teeth and bones from the oldest eocene deposits in 

 France, wdiich he refers to a smaller species of the genus 

 Coryphodon : * the last molar is identical in form with the 

 tooth from the plastic clay of Essex, on which the genus was 

 originally founded. 



Genus Pliolophus, Ow. — The most complete and instruc- 

 tive example of a Mammal from the next overlying division 

 of the eocene tertiaries, viz., the " London clay," is the Pliolo- 

 phus vulpiceps. It is a hoofed Herbivore, but presents a denti- 

 tion not exhibited by any later or existing species of Mammal. 



The characteristics of the skull (fig. 121) determine the 

 hoofed nature of the species, and its affinities to the Perisso- 

 dactyla, or the order of Ungulata with toes in odd number. 

 The extent and well-defined boundary of the temporal fossae 

 by the occipital ( 3 ), parietal ( 7 ), and post-frontal ridges, and 

 their free communication with the orbits, give almost a car- 

 nivorous character to this part of the cranium ; but as in the 



* Comptes Kendus de l'Acad. des Sciences, Tan's, 26th January 1857 

 {Coryphodon Oweni, Herbert). 



