144 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. ix. 
To give a complete idea of the flora and its connections, T have given in the preceding 
Note a general list of all the fossil remains I have so far had occasion to mention 
from the Damuda beds, which themselves may indicate the age of these beds. I hope there 
will be added still more of them, but yet these are the most important now, and establish 
sufficiently the ago of the series. 
Notes on the Osteology of Merycopotamus dissimilis, by R. Lydekkeb, b. a., 
Geological Survey of India. 
Previous notices. —Of this extinct genus of Hippopotamoid Artiocdactyla, which is 
confined to the Tertiary Strata of India and Burma, no complete descriptions of any part 
of the skeleton, beyond the teeth, have hitherto appeared. Figures of the cranium, and of 
some of the limb-hones, have, however, been given in the “ Fauna Antique Sivalensis ” 
(plates 07 and 68), and a short notice of the cranium was given by Dr. Falconer and Sir 
Proby Oautlcy in tho Asiatic Researches ( vol. XIX). This paper, together with figures, will 
be found reprinted in the “ Palaeontological Memoirs” (vol. I, p. 138). In the same volume 
(p. 147, plate 15 figs. 1 and 2) there is also given a short notice with figures of an adolescent 
cranium from Burma, forwarded by Dr. Oldham to Dr. Falconer: this specimen is now in 
the Indian Museum. Professor Owen (Odontography p. 566) has also given a figure and a 
short description of the general characters of the molar teeth ; a molar tooth is also figured 
in M. De Rlainville’s Osteographie (Allas Amplotherium) ; M. Pictet ( Paleontologie, 
vol. 1, p. 342) has classed the genus, chiefly on account of the form of its molar teeth, with 
tho A noplotIteridis. In Dr. Falconer’s above-quoted paper the species was placed in the 
genus Hippopotamus, In the collection of the Indian Museum we have fragmentary portions 
of several of the limb-bones, from the Manchhars, Siwaliks and Burma beds. From the exam¬ 
ination of these, together with Falconer’s figures, I have been enabled to arrive at an 
approximate idea of the skeleton of the genus, though many parts are still wanting, which I 
hope subsequent discoveries will make good. 
Character.—Merycopotamus seems to have been a tetradactyle animal of about the size of 
the Indian wild hoar ; its dentition has the same formula as in the latter animal, and the excessive 
development of the canines in both jaws is a character common to the fossil form, to tho 
allied living genera Sus and Hippopotamus, and to the fossil Anthracotherium. The femur 
followed the normal Artiodactyle rule of lacking a third trochanter for the ghitmus maxi- 
mus ; while the cuboid and navicular bones of the tarsus were distinct, and the facets on the 
astragalus for the articulation ol these two hones, were of nearly equal size. The radius and 
ulna were disunited, as in fhe Pig, while in the Hippopotamus they are anchylosed together. 
It will be found that the extinct genus presents points in common with both .Sus, Hippopo¬ 
tamus and Anthracotherium, and may probably be regarded as having, like the latter genus, 
formed a connecting link between the Suina and Ruminantia. As its name implies, the 
form of its molar teeth approaches that of the Ruminantia, and breaks down the distinction 
between the l ' cylmdrifovm” teeth of tho true Pecora, and the “columno-agglomeratc” 
teeth of the Suina; in the Siwalik period, however, these two groups of Artiodactyla had 
already been completely differentiated : we cannot, therefore, consider Merycopotamus to 
have been in any way a progenitor of the true Ruminants, hut the genus may very probably 
have descended from some older form, which at an earlier period diverged from an original 
stock allied to the Suina, and gave rise to the more modern and specialized group of Rumi¬ 
nantia. From the dimensions of the axis vertebra, Merycopotamus must have been a much 
longer-necked; animal than either the Pig or the Hippopotamus, in this respect also showing 
Ru minan t tendencies. 
