. The ancient life-history of the earth; a comprehensive outline of the principles and leading facts of palæontological science. Paleontology. THE MIOCENE PERIOD. 319 of Sivatherium, has drawn attention to the fact that the Prong- buck sheds the sheath of its horns annually, and has suggeste'd ""^^^N. Fig. 245.—Skull oi Sivatherhungigaiiteitjii, reduced in size. Miocene, India. (After IMurie.) that this may also have been the case with the extinct form. This conjecture is rendered probable, amongst other reasons, by the fact that no traces of a horny sheath surrounding the horn-cores
. The ancient life-history of the earth; a comprehensive outline of the principles and leading facts of palæontological science. Paleontology. THE MIOCENE PERIOD. 319 of Sivatherium, has drawn attention to the fact that the Prong- buck sheds the sheath of its horns annually, and has suggeste'd ""^^^N. Fig. 245.—Skull oi Sivatherhungigaiiteitjii, reduced in size. Miocene, India. (After IMurie.) that this may also have been the case with the extinct form. This conjecture is rendered probable, amongst other reasons, by the fact that no traces of a horny sheath surrounding the horn-cores of the Indian fossil have been as yet detected. Upon the whole, therefore, we may regard the elephantine Sivathcriiim as being most nearly allied to the Prongbuck of Western America, and thus as belonging to the family of the Antelopes. It is to the Miocene period, again, to which we must refer the first appearance of the important order of the Elephants and their allies {Proboscideans), all of which are characterised by their elongated trunk-like noses, the possession of five toes to the foot, the absence of canine teeth, the development of two or more of the incisor teeth into long tusks, and the adaptation of the molar teeth to a vegetable diet. Only three generic groups of this order are known—namely, the extinct Deino- theriwn, the equally extinct Mastodons, and the Elephants; and all these three types are known to have been in existence as. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Nicholson, Henry Alleyne, 1844-1899. Edinburgh, London, Blackwood
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Keywords: ., bookaut, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectpaleontology
