﻿i;6 EVOLUTION IN THE PAST 



were in the herds with teeth of modern type, and the " extra " 

 toes — only dwarfed in other forms — had practically dis- 

 appeared. The animals, in fact, although of humble stature, 

 were true horses (E. sivalensis). Professor Ewart considers 

 that Arabs, barbs, thoroughbreds, and other modern breeds 

 have mainly sprung from these Indian Pliocene forms. 

 rhino- Many must have been the paths made through the grasses 

 ceroses and brushwood by the heavy tread of rhinoceroses. Fre- 

 quent, too, must have been their conflicts with sabre-toothed 

 cats, to say nothing of love-quarrels among themselves. 

 In addition to some members of the moribund, hornless line 

 (Aceratheriuni), there were certain two-horned forms (R. pla- 

 tyrhinus), ancestors probably of the so-called " white rhino- 

 ceros " of Africa. Other animals were of a species no members 

 of which ever seem to have wandered beyond the limits of 

 Asia (R. sivalensis, R. palceindicus). These animals are gener- 

 ally regarded as having been the ancestors of the one- 

 horned rhinoceroses now living in India. In course of time 

 the one-horned forms entirely supplanted the two-horned 

 in that country. 

 swine Pigs, resembling for the most part those in Europe, were 

 common in the woods and swamps ; but the Indian animals 

 of the wild boar type were, as a rule, of larger size than 

 their European relations. In some cases, indeed, they were 

 as big as mules (5. titan). Others (5. punjabiensis) were 

 extremely small ; and probably were ancestors of the pigmy 

 hogs of our own time (5. salvanius). There were also pigs 

 — not found in Europe — that seem to have been developing 

 in the direction of the Wart-hog, whose forbidding physiog- 

 nomy is now confined to Africa (Phacochcerus). 



In addition to these various true pigs there were a number 

 of unconventional, though allied, forms. Old-fashioned 

 swamp-loving brutes with opossum-shaped skulls, and teeth 

 of a partly ruminant character, were surviving here, although 

 they had long been extinct in Europe (Anthracotherium) ; 

 and other uncanonical pigs were grubbing about with tooth- 

 peculiarities still more pronounced (Merycopotamns etc.). 

 All these anomalous creatures were shortly to disappear. 



It is possible that some of the pig-like brutes of earlier 



