SOME EARLY MAMMALS 
233 
study of Geology. His restorations became patterns for others, 
like Owen, Huxley, Marsh, Cope, Gaudry, and many more, who 
have worked on the lines he laid down. The mammalian remains 
brought to Cuvier by numerous collectors were very imperfect and 
fragmentary — detached bones and teeth, with occasionally some 
portion of a skeleton. The success with which he put them into 
order, and built up therefrom the long-lost types of Eocene cTays, 
was due largely to his wonderful knowledge of living animals, 
but partly also to his Law of Correlation (see p. 7). 
One of Cuvier’s triumphs was the restoration of the Palseo- 
Fig. 86. — Skeleton of a tapir-like animal, PalcBotlierium magnum, from Eocene 
strata, near Paris. (After Gaudry.) 
therium,^ a tapir-like animal, from fragmentary remains found in 
the strata of the Paris basin, chiefly at Montmartre ; his con- 
clusions being afterwards verified by the discovery of a nearly 
complete skeleton (see Fig. 86). The molar teeth of this animal 
somewhat resembled those of the rhinoceros. The skull shows 
that it had a short proboscis. The toes, of which there were 
three on each foot, ended in small hoofs, the middle toes being 
^ Greek — palaios, ancient ; therion, wild beast. 
