﻿INTRODUCTION. xxix 



occipital crests, and especially of the upper margin of the orbits above the plane of the 

 brow. 1 



$ 9, g. Perisso-dactyla. Genus Equus. Species Equus fossilis, Von Meyer. — The 

 prairies of Pleistocene Europe must have been as plentifully stocked with the wild horse 

 as those of America by the half-wild horses introduced by the early settlers, Nearly every 

 Pleistocene bone-cavern in England has yielded their remains, and in the river-deposits 

 their presence is the rule rather than the exception. In the forest-bed at Cromer, it is 

 found associated with the remains of mammoth, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and trogon- 

 therium. In Wookey Hole Hyaena-den, in conjunction with the tichorhine rhinoceros it 

 formed the chief food of the hysenas. 



Professor Owen considers that the solidungulate remains indicate the coexistence 

 of three distinct species in Pleistocene Britain ; — Equus fossilis, a species distinct from the 

 living E. caballus, Equus plicidens, based on molar teeth from Oreston, and Asinus fossilis 

 from Chatham, Oreston, Thorpe, and Kessingland. These last two may turn out to be 

 varieties of Equus fossilis, and that species we can determine by no special mark except 

 by the smaller transverse measurement of the teeth, from the living Equus caballus. It is 

 possible that the smaller remains ascribed to Asinus fossilis may have belonged to the ass, 

 but at least it is equally possible that they may have belonged to a small variety of 

 horse. 3 



Genus Rhinoceros. The remains of the fossil rhinoceros have perhaps a wider range 

 than those of any other fossil quadruped except Macliairodus and Elephas. Prom the shores 

 of Siberia in latitude 72°, southwards as far as the Sivalik Hills they are found in greater or 

 less abundance, from east to west the genus ranges from the banks of the Lena to the 

 Straits of Gibraltar. Its range in time is as great as its range in space— from the Miocene 

 as far down as the later division of the Pleistocene, when the ' low-level ' gravels and 

 brick-earths of Mr. Prestwich were being deposited. The British Pleistocene species are 

 four in number. 



Species BJdnoceros tichorliinus, Cuv. — The tichorhine is the most widely spread and 

 the best known of the British species of rhinoceros. Its remains are found from the 

 Pyrenees and Alps, throughout Prance, Germany, and Russia, as far north as the shores 



1 Dr. Falconer's letter in Dr. Morton's paper, " On a new living species of Hippopotamus," etc., 

 ' Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci.,' Philadelphia, vol. i, 2nd series. 



2 Cuvier comes to the same conclusion, after a careful study of the remains of horses : " La meme 

 resemblance paroit avoir eu lieu de Pespece fossile aux especes vivantes. J'ai choisi des os de cheval 

 fossiles bien entiers, et que je savois certainement avoir ete trouves pele-mele avec des os d'elephans, 

 rhinoceros, ou d'hippotames, qui devoient done etre provenus de chevaux de cette ancien monde, ayant vecu 

 avectous ces grands pachydermes et j'en ai fait une comparaison soignee avecmessquelettes. Par example, 

 une femur de cette caverne de Breugues ou il y avoit des os de rhinoceros etoit parfaitement semblable, a 

 un femur de cheval de taille moyenne," etc., etc. Op. cit., torn, ii, pp. Ill, 112. 



