62 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Genus Rhinoceros. 

 Rhinoceroides Jllleghaniensis. 



Vid. Am. Monthly Journal of Geology &c, where under this name is figured 

 and described a petrifaction which displays cousiderable resemblance to the 

 bony snout of the Rhinoceros. The original specimen was sent to London, 

 and the geologist who there examined it considered it of too doubtful a cha- 

 racter to be admitted as a fossil remnant. 



For ourselves, we are disposed to wait for further 

 discoveries of this nature, previous to admitting the 

 present specimen as a part of our fossil fauna. The spe- 

 cimen is no less singular or interesting to geologists, as 

 demonstrating the very close analogy of a mere lusus 

 naturae of the mineral kingdom, if it be nothing else, to 

 a portion of the animal skeleton. One argument ap- 

 plied to this and other similar specimens, in order to 

 prove that it could not be considered as an organic 

 relic, viz. — the total absence of bony material, I con- 

 ceive to be by no means conclusive ; it being quite pos- 

 sible that the skeleton of an animal might be so circum- 

 stanced as to become completely mineralized, or changed 

 from its original structure, just as we observe some ve- 

 getable structures to have changed. In ordinary in- 

 stances, we are well aware the very reverse of this, as 

 regards bones, is the fact ; even the animal matter in 

 fossil bones would appear to be, under some circum- 

 stances, as indestructible as the rock in which they are 

 entombed, some of which are comparatively ancient, 

 such as the saurian bones contained in the cuperose 



