ON THE EXTINCT ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
291 
characters, common to all early Ungulates, especially the com- 
plete number of incisor and premolar teeth. These are forms 
for fuller information upon which we anxiously wait.* 
It should be mentioned that Professor Marsh has made of 
Uintatherium and its immediate allies a peculiar order of 
mammals, to which he has given the name of Dinocerata , 
while Cope, who formerly included them in the Proboscidea, 
and placed Bathmodon with the Perissodactyla, has now 
(“ Syst. Cat. of Vertebrata of the Eocene of New Mexico,” 
1875) formed an order called Amblypoda , of which the Dino- 
cerata , containing the genera Uintatherium and Loxolopho- 
don , is one sub-order, and the Pantodonta , containing Bath- 
modon and Metalopholodon , the other. Both, however, admit 
that they hold a position somewhat intermediate between the 
modern orders of Proboscidea and Perissodactyle Ungulates, 
and so stand out, as it were, as broken piers of the bridge by 
which the gulf which now so completely divides these orders 
might have been passed over. 
The negative evidence (which of course must be received 
with the greatest caution in palaeontology) of the absence of 
the remains of any of these animals in the Miocene or Plio- 
cene deposits of North America, indicates that the race became 
extinct, at least in that land, though it possibly may have mi- 
grated elsewhere, and perhaps in Asia may have laid the founda- 
tion of that family, which first appears in the Old World under 
the more familiar form of the typical Proboscideans. 
While, however, it would be the rashest possible assertion to 
say that these were derived directly from the Eocene Bath- 
modons and Uintatheriums, it is not too much to look upon 
the latter as affording us some indications of the steps by 
which the process might have taken place, and as such their 
discovery is one of the most interesting that has been revealed 
by modern palaeontological research. 
The history of the North American Carnivora may next 
engage our attention. In the actual condition of affairs, this 
order is tolerably well represented on that continent. The 
Procyonidce , or raccoon-like animals, are almost peculiar to it ; 
the bears, and their allies the otters, martens, and skunks are 
numerous. The dogs also are widely distributed and variously 
modified. The Felidae, though tolerably abundant, do not 
attain the same size and strength as in the Old World, and the 
Hycenidce , Protelidce , Cryptoproctidce , and the great family of 
Viverridce , the civets and genettes, are entirely wanting. 
As the modern tapirs and peccaries, which pursue their peace- 
* It has been shown quite recently that Bathmodon is the same as Cory - 
phodon (Owen) of the European Eocenes. 
