The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals; Mammals
The history of the discovery of the members of this order is very
instructive as illustrating the dangers of laying too much classificatory
importance upon detached fragments of animals. So long ago as 1825 terminal
phalanges of a new creature were found in the Miocene of Eppelsheim, and
sent to Cuvier. Cuvier named them "Pangolin gigantesque," deeming them, on
account of their general form and cleft terminations, to pertain to the
Edentata. In the same bed some seven years later were found certain teeth
clearly of an Ungulate character, to which the generic name of
_Chalicotherium_ was applied. It was subsequently discovered that the teeth
and the claws belonged to the same animal, and, later, further remains
turned up which disclosed a creature having the anomalous composition of an
Ungulate with decisively Ungulate teeth, but with the feet to a large
extent like those of an unguiculate animal. The same confusion of
characters occurs also, it will be remembered, in the distinctly
Artiodactyle _Agriochoerus_ (see p. 331). Indeed the feet of the latter
when first discovered were erroneously, as it now appears, referred to the
present order of Ungulates under the name of _Artionyx_. It is probable
that the genus _Moropus_ of North America is a member of this group, and
that it is probably congeneric with a somewhat different type of Ancylopod
known as _Macrotherium_. It is also clear that _Anisodon_, _Schizotherium_,
and _Ancylotherium_, if not congeneric with either of the two recognised
genera, are at least very close to them.
_Chalicotherium_ has a skull which recalls that of some of the earlier
Ungulates; it has, however, no incisors at all, and no canines in the upper
jaw; this feature has led to the belief that the animal is related to the
Edentata, and that it is in fact a link between them and the Ungulata. The
molars, like those of the Perissodactyla, are of the buno-selenodont type.
It also agrees with that group (to which it has been approximated by
several writers) in the. tridactyl manus and pes, and in the characters of
the tarsus. But although tridactyl, the axis of the limb passes through the
fourth digit. _Chalicotherium_ is not mesaxonic, as are the
Perissodactyles. Moreover, it has no third {212} trochanter, and the
unguiculate claws have already been referred to. As to the latter, which
are short, it is not the end phalanx but the first which is retracted; thus
_Chalicotherium_ differs markedly from both Carnivorous and Edentate types;
for in the former it is the last phalanx which is retracted, while in the
Edentates the same phalanx is flexed downwards. The limbs of
_Chalicotherium_ are nearly of the same size, and the animal seems to have
been stout and quadrupedal.[132]
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