100—2 INDIAN TERTIARY AND POST-TERTIARY VERTEBRATA. 
its origin. Tlie solitary living representative of this peculiar family is one of the 
most highly specialised and abnormal of existing ruminants, and, according to Pro- 
fessor Owen', “is in some respects intermediate between the ‘hollow-horned’ [as 
represented by the Antelopes] and ‘ solid-horned ’ ruminants, though partaking more 
of the nature of the deer.” Professor Murie- observes that “ the giraffe is hut a 
modified deer,” and this kinship is especially marked in the structure of the molar 
teeth, which approximates to that of certain members of the deer family, such as 
the true elk ( Aloes ) and the so-called Irish elk ( Megaceros ). The so-called horns of 
the giraffe, moreover, approach nearer in structure to the antlers of the deer (e. g. 
the pedicles of the antlers of the mantjac) than to the horns of the antelopes. In 
the structure of its intestines, and the normal absence of the galkbladder, the 
giraffe resembles the deer, but the occasional development of the Tatter appendage 
recalls antelopine affinities. In some respects, as in the form of the ‘ angle 5 of the 
mandible, the giraffe decidedly shows a nearer approach to the antelopes than to 
the deer. The lachrymal vacuity in the skull is a cervine character. 
Although palaeontologists have described several fossil representatives of the 
genus Camelopardalis, they have not hitherto decidedly admitted into the family 
any other genus with the exception of Qrasius of Wagner, founded upon certain 
molar teeth of a giraffe-like animal from the ossiferous deposits of Pikermi. These 
teeth 3 are distinguished from those of Camelopardalis by the presence of a distinct 
‘ cingulum,’ and by the more complex form of the last true molar. 
M. Gaudry, however, has indicated 4 the near affinity of the genus Ilellado- 
tlierium of the Pikermi beds to the giraffe, the former having been originally referred 
to the same genus. 
In the course of the present memoir it will be shown that some of the large 
fossil ruminants from the Siwaliks present characters allying them on the one hand 
with Sivatherium, which Professor Murie 5 has made the type of the family 
Sivatheridse, and on the other with the giraffe, and that they so completely bridge 
over the gulf existing between these two animals that it appears to the author to be 
necessary to include them all in one family, — the Camelopardalidce, — having the 
giraffe at one end and the sivathere at the other 6 . In the course of this memoir it will 
be shown that the whole of the family is probably more closely allied to the deer than 
to any other group of mammals. This view is in opposition to that of Dr. Murie, 
who was inclined to separate the sivathere entirely from the giraffe, and to connect 
it with the prongbuck (Antilocapra) and the saiga antelope. 
1 “ Anatomy of Vertebrates,” Vol, II, pp. 463-464. 
2 “ Geological Mag.,” Vol. VIII, p. 446. 
3 Wagner, “ Nachtrage zur Kenntniss der fossilen Hufthier Ueberreste von Pikermi.” (Sitz. d. k. baieri 
Akad. d. Wissens, July 13th 1861). I have no doubt that the lower molars figured by Wagner as belonging to an 
animal allied to the giraffe are really the lower molars of bis genus Orasius. 
4 Animaux Possiles et Gdologie de 1’ Attique,” p. 259. 
5 “Geol. Mag.,” Vol. VIII, p. 438 et seq. 
6 A notice of tlie intimate relationship of the above-mentioned animal was published by the author in 1882. 
(R. G. S. L> Vol. XV, p. 30.) 
