Fig. 95.— Skull of Dinoceras mirabile. (After Marsh.) 
p. 269) ; in other words, the elephant is highly “ specialised ” in 
that direction, whereas our Dinoceras had no proboscis, or only a 
very slight one. 
Again, the six remarkable bony protuberances of the skull 
served to some extent as horns, and probably were covered with 
thick bosses of skin, and did not support true horns like those 
of our modern oxen and other ruminants. Speaking of these 
protuberances. Professor Marsh says, None of the covering of 
SOME EARLY MAMMALS 255 
It is quite clear, then, that we cannot place the Dinoceras 
in any order of living mammals. It is what palaeontologists call 
a “ generalised type ; ” that is to say, it presents certain characters 
seen in several groups of living quadrupeds, and not any of those 
elaborated or highly developed parts which we see in such 
animals to-day. Thus the proboscis of the elephant is the result 
of great elongation of the cheeks and nose of its ancestor (see 
