228 



REMARKABLE EXTINCT Q,UADRUPEDS. 



times in the marl that separates the beds. Remains of turtles and 

 crocodiles have also been found in the same strata. It is to the in- 

 defatigable and enlightened labours of Baron Cuvier that we are in- 

 debted for a knowledge of the different genera of remarkable land 

 quadrupeds, belonging to a former world, found in the gypsum quar- 

 ries ; they differ from any genera of living animals. These land 

 quadrupeds were herbivorous ; they belong to the order which Cu- 

 vier has denominated Fachydermata, or thick-skinned non-ruminant 

 animals. One of the genera called Palceotherium, (or ancient ani- 

 mal,) appears to bear some relation to the rhinoceros, the hippopota- 

 mus, and horse, and in some respects to the pig and the camel. 



Of this genus there are eleven or twelve species ; five of them 

 have been found in the Paris gypsum. The largest was of the size 

 of a horse, but its form was heavy, and its legs were thick and short; 

 its grinders resemble those of the rhinoceros and the daman it 

 had six incisive and two canine teeth, like the tapir, and, like that 

 animal, had a short fleshy trunk : it had three toes on each fool, and 

 is supposed to have inhabited marshy ground, and to have lived on 

 the roots and stems of succulent marsh plants. One of the species 

 however, possessed the size and the light figure of the Antelope, and 

 is supposed, like other light herbivorous animals, to have browsed, 

 in dry situations, on aromatic plants, or the buds of young trees. 

 Probably, says Cuvier, it was a timid animal, with large movable 

 ears, like those of the deer, which could apprise it of the least dan- 

 ger : doubtless its skin was covered with short hair; and we want 

 to know only its colour, in order to paint it, as it formerly lived in 

 the country where, after so many ages, its bones have been dug up. 



One species of the palceotherium was not larger than a hare. 



The Anoplotherium., or animal without defensive teeth, has been 

 found only in the gypsum quarries near Paris. Jt has two very dis- 

 tinctive characters : the feet have only two toes, which are separated 

 the whole length of the foot ; the teeth, of which there are six inci- 

 sive in each jaw, a canine tooth of the same height, and six molares j 

 or grinders, all form a continued scries without any interval, which | 

 is the case with no other known quadruped. The most common 

 species is of the height of a boar, but much longer. In the same 

 quarries, there are remains of other animals, allied to the anoplo- 

 therium, but which differ in the form of their teeth. In these quar- j 

 ries, the bones of six species of birds have been discovered, and f 

 also the remains of a few carnivorous animals, allied to the dog and 

 the weasel. It is remarkable, that in the middle of the gypsum for- 

 mation, and throughout the greater part of it, we find the remains of 

 land animals and of fresh-water fish and shells; but near its upper 

 and lower limits, both in the gypsum and the gypseous marl, the fos- 



* An African quadruped, of the size of a rabbit, but closely resembling the 

 rhinoceros. 



