The dental formula was: _i_ 0/3, _c_ 1/1, _p_ 3/3, _m_ 3/3, × 2 = 34. The upper incisors were completely lost and the lower ones had the very unusual peculiarity of being bilobate, or having the crown separated into two well-defined cusps. The upper canines in the males were very large, relatively thin, recurved and sabre-like tusks, with acute points and sharp edges, which must have been terrible weapons, though it is difficult to see how they were used; probably the mouth was widely opened, so as to clear the points of the tusks, and the animal then struck with them, as a snake does with its fangs. The lower canine was very small and was included in the incisor series, the shape and function of which it had assumed. Thus, the †uintatheres, with their toothless premaxillaries and, to all appearances, eight lower incisors, formed a curious parallel to the true ruminants (Pecora), and, as in the latter, they must have had a firm elastic pad on the premaxillaries, against which the lower incisors could effectively bite, when cropping the soft plants which formed the diet of these great beasts. The grinding teeth were low-crowned and surprisingly small in comparison with the size of the skull. The premolars and molars were nearly alike and had two or more transverse crests. Aside from the altogether exceptional character of the skull, the skeleton was quite strikingly elephantine in appearance, so much so, in fact, that these animals have repeatedly been referred to the Proboscidea and some writers are still of the opinion that the two orders were related. There is, however, no sufficient ground for this view; the undeniable likenesses are much more probably to be ascribed to the operation of convergent development. [Illustration: FIG. 231.—One of the elephantine †amblypods (_†Uintatherium alticeps_) of the Bridger stage. Male in foreground, female behind. Restored from specimens in the museums of Yale and Princeton universities.]