410; NOTE ON THE FOSSIL HIPPOPOTAMUS 



To the fossil variety now to be described, we propose the name Siva- 

 lensis, a name so far applicable as attaching it to its locality and com- 

 memorating the region in which its remains have been scattered in such 

 profusion. 



In the African Hippopotamus figured by Cuvier and so fully described 

 in the first volume of the Ossemens Fossiles, we find the incisors consisting of 

 four slightly curved teeth in the upper, and in the lower j aw four straight 

 teeth projecting forwards at an obtuse angle with the plane of the grinding 

 surface, the two centre ones being of considerably larger proportions than the 

 others, and being formidable weapons either for tearing the roots and weeds 

 from which the animal derives its nourishment or for defence. In the 

 fossil Hippopotamus before us these large and powerful teeth are replaced 

 by others of a smaller size but in a greater number, there being no less 

 than six, those in the upper jaw being slightly curved downwards, and 

 those in the lower projecting forwards ; the diameter of these teeth, which 

 are cylinders with truncated ends, is less in the upper than in the lower 

 jaw, and the centrical teeth may be considered as being in some degree 

 larger than those on the right and left. When we advert to the uses to 

 which the incisive teeth of this unwieldy animal are applied, the means 

 of tearing up the food, and the sieve to cleanse that food afterwards ;* we 

 see in this form of tooth, and this arrangement of the muzzle an adapta- 

 tion to the wants as perfect as, although for defence less powerful than, in 

 the existing species. With the six incisors our fossil animal has the canine 

 teeth of the upper jaw with a uniform outline in transverse section, whilst 



* Vide Lancet: — Prof. Grant's Lectures. 



