1836.] 



a new Fossil Genus of (he Sivdlik range* 



229 



Indian \-horned 

 Elephant^ Sivatherium. Rhinoceros, 



From margin of foramen magnum to 



the first molar, 23.10 



Greatest width of the cranium, 26.0 



Do. do. of face between the malar bones, 18.5 



Greatest depth of the skull, 17.80 



Long diameter of the foramen magnum, 2.55 



Short do. ...... .do .do. . 2.4 



inch, 



18.85 inch. 24.9 inch. 



22.0 12.05 



16.G2 9.20 



11.9 11.05 



2.6 2.65 



2.3 1 5 



Average of the above, 



15.06 



12.38 



10.22 



If the view which we have taken of the fossil be correct, the Siva- 

 therium was a very remarkable animal, and it fills up an important 

 blank in the interval between the Ruminantia and Pachydermata. That 

 it was a ruminant, the teeth and horns most clearly establish ; and the 

 structure which we have inferred of the upper lip, the osteology of the 

 face, and the size and position of the orbit, approximate it to the Pachy- 

 dermata. The circumstance of any thing approaching a proboscis is so 

 abnormal for a ruminant, that at the first view, it might raise a doubt, 

 regarding the correctness of the ordinal position assigned to the fossil ; 

 but when we inquire further, the difficulty ceases. 



In the Pachydermata, there are genera with a trunk, and others with- 

 out a trace of it. This organ is therefore not essential to the constitu- 

 tion of the order, but accidental to the size of the head, or habits of the 

 animal in certain genera. Thus in the Elephant, nature has given a 

 short neck to support the huge head, the enormous tusks and the large 

 grinding apparatus of the animal ; and by such an arrangement, the 

 construction of the rest of the frame is saved from the disturbance 

 which a long neck would have entailed. But as the lever of the head 

 became shortened, some other method of reaching its food became ne- 

 cessary ; and a trunk was appended to the mouth. We have only to 

 apply analagous conditions to a ruminant, and a trunk is equally re- 

 quired. In fact, the Camel exhibits a rudimentary form of this organ, 

 under different circumstances. The upper lip is cleft ; each of the 

 divisions is separately movable and extensible, so as to be an excellent 

 organ of touch. 



The fossil was discovered near the Markanda river, in one of the 

 small valleys which stretch between the Kydrda-dun and the valley of 

 Pinjor, in the Sivdlik or sub-Himalayan belt of hills, associated with 

 bones of the fossil Elephant, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, &c. 

 So far as our researches yet go, the Sivatherium was not numerous. 

 Compared with the Mastodon and Hippopotamus, (H. Sivdlensis, Nobis, 

 a new species characterized by having six incisors in either jaw ;) it 

 was very rare. 



Northern Dodb, Sept. 15, 1835. 



