EXTINCT SPECIES OF DEER.--It has been already mentioned that the most primitive kinds of Deer had no horns at all, resembling in this the modern _Moschus_ and _Hydropotes_, and that with lapse of time went hand in hand an increasing complexity of antler; the facts of palaeontology harmonising in the most striking manner with the facts of individual development from year to year. The oldest forms seem to be more nearly akin to the living Muntjacs, and their remains occur in the lowest Miocene beds of both Europe and America. At present the group is confined to the warmer parts of Asia and some of the islands belonging to that continent. One of the oldest types is _Amphitragulus_. This genus, which consists of several species, inhabited Europe, and differed from living Muntjacs in being totally hornless in both sexes; the skull had no lachrymal fossa or deficient lateral ossification. Nearly allied is _Dremotherium_ of similar age and range. The Middle Miocene has furnished the remains of the genus _Dicroceras_. This is the earliest Deer in which horns have been found. The horns are, as the name of the genus implies, bifid, and have, like those of the living Muntjac, a very long pedicel. This is also a European genus like the last. From this period we come across true Deer, which commence in the Upper Miocene and have branched horns. Moreover they belong, at least for the most part, to the existing genera. One of the most remarkable forms is _Cervus sedgwicki_ (sometimes placed in a separate genus, _Polycladus_) from the Forest Bed of Norfolk and from the Upper Pliocene of the Val d'Arno. This creature was remarkable for its multitudinously-branched antlers. These end in no less than twelve points. No Deer exists or has existed in which the horns are so completely branched. They are like those of a Red Deer exaggerated. [Illustration] FIG. 159.--Giraffe. _Giraffa camelopardalis._ x 1/40.