A history of land mammals in the western hemisphereScott, William Berryman
History
A history of land mammals in the western hemisphere
Scott, William Berryman
Mammals; Mammals, Fossil
The Perissodactyla were the preponderant type of hoofed animals, and
ancestral forms of most of the White River genera have already been
identified. The †titanotheres (_†Diplacodon_, _†Protitanotherium_)
were much smaller and lighter than those of the lower White River and
had much shorter horns. The †hyracodonts, the lightly built, cursorial
rhinoceroses, were represented by a genus (_†Triplopus_) which was
smaller and more slender than the White River form (_†Hyracodon_) and its
teeth were of distinctly more primitive character. The heavy, massive
and presumably aquatic †amynodonts (_†Amynodon_) were likewise smaller
and less specialized than their descendants of the Oligocene. No member
of the true rhinoceros series has yet been identified in the Uinta,
but there is some reason to think that they were nevertheless present.
Tapirs are distinctly indicated by certain fossils, but they are still
too incompletely known to make possible any statement as to their degree
of development. The horses (_†Epihippus_), like the other families
mentioned, were much smaller and distinctly more primitive than their
successors in the Oligocene.
The Artiodactyla were, for the first time in the history of North
America, as numerous and as varied as the perissodactyls and, with the
exception of the peccaries and †anthracotheres, representatives of
all the White River families are known. The finding of the peccaries
is merely a question of further exploration, but the †anthracotheres
were migrants from the Old World, and there is no likelihood that they
will be discovered in the Uinta at any future time. Fairly large,
pig-like animals, probably referable to the †giant-pigs or †entelodonts,
occurred, but nothing has yet been found which can be considered as
the direct ancestor of the White River genus. As was true of the
perissodactyls, the Uinta artiodactyls were nearly all much smaller and
more primitive than their Oligocene descendants and the differences are
most interesting from the evolutionary point of view. The ancestral
camel (_†Protylopus_) was a little creature no bigger than a fox-terrier,
though the †hypertragulids (_†Leptotragulus_) were as large as
_†Leptomeryx_ and _†Hypertragulus_ of the White River. The most ancient
known members of the †oreodonts (_†Protoreodon_) and the †agriochœrids
(_†Protagriochœrus_) are found in the Uinta.
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