ITS NEA REST EXISTING RELATIONS 



55 



the median line, a stage of development which appa- 

 rently was never reached in America. In the Pliocene 

 and Pleistocene of Europe and Asia numerous rhinoceros 

 remains have been found, all more or less nearly related 

 to the existing species. The present African two- 

 horned type was already represented in the early 

 Pliocene of Greece by R. pachygnathus, the skeleton 

 of which is described by Gaudry as intermediate 

 between the existing R. bicornis and It. simus. As 

 many as three species were inhabitants of the British 

 Isles, of which the best known is the Tichorhine or 

 woolly rhinoceros, R. antiquitatis of Blumenbach, R. 

 tichorhinus of other authors, nearly whole carcases of 

 which, with their thick woolly external covering, have 

 been discovered, associated with those of the mammoth, 

 preserved in the frozen soil of the north of Siberia, and 

 which, in common with some other extinct species, had 

 a solid median wall of bone supporting the nasals. From 

 this peculiarity it has been inferred that the horns were 

 of size and weight surpassing those of the modern species. 

 The one-horned Indian type was well represented under 

 several modifications (R. sivalensis, R. palceindicus, &c.) in 

 the Pliocene deposits of the sub-Himalayan region, and 

 forms more allied to the African bicorn species have also 

 been found in a fossil state in India. R. schleiermacheri 

 of the late European Miocene in some features, especially 

 in possession of incisor teeth and two horns, resembled 



