The terrestrial animals which lived in the Miocene period were Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles. Many new Mammals had appeared since the preceding period; among others, Apes, Cheiropteras (Bats), Carnivora, Marsupials, Rodents, Dogs. Among the first we find _Pithecus antiquus_ and _Mesopithecus_; the Bats, Dogs, and Coati inhabited Brazil and Guiana; the Rats North America; the Genettes, the Marmots, the Squirrels, and Opossums having some affinity to the Opossums of America. Thrushes, Sparrows, Storks, Flamingoes, and Crows, represent the class Birds. Among the Reptiles appear several Snakes, Frogs, and Salamanders. The lakes and rivers were inhabited by Perches and Shad. But it is among the Mammals that we must seek for the most interesting species of animals of this period. They are both numerous and remarkable for their dimensions and peculiarities of form; but the species which appeared in the Miocene period, as in those which preceded it, are now only known by their fossil remains and bones. The _Dinotherium_ (Fig. 159), one of the most remarkable of these animals, is the largest terrestrial Mammal which has ever lived. For a long time we possessed only very imperfect portions of the skeleton of this animal, upon the evidence of which Cuvier was induced erroneously to place it among the Tapirs. The discovery of a lower jaw, nearly perfect, armed with defensive tusks descending from its lower jaw, demonstrated that this hitherto mysterious animal was the type of an altogether new and singular genus. Nevertheless, as it was known that there were some animals of the ancient world in which both jaws were armed, it was thought for some time that such was the case with the Dinotherium. But in 1836, a head, nearly entire, was found in the already celebrated beds at Eppelsheim, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt. In 1837 this fine fragment was carried to Paris, and exposed to public view. It was nearly a yard and a half long, and above a yard wide. The defences, it was found, were enormous, and were carried at the anterior extremity of the lower maxillary bone, and much curved inwards, as in the Morse. The molar teeth were in many respects analogous to those of the Tapir, and the great suborbital apertures, joined to the form of the nasal bone, rendered the existence of a proboscis or trunk very probable. But the most remarkable bone belonging to the Dinotherium which has yet been found is an omoplate or scapula, which by its form reminds us of that of the Mole. [Illustration: Fig. 159.--Dinotherium.] This colossus of the ancient world, respecting which there has been so much argument, somewhat approaches the Mastodon; it seems to announce the appearance of the Elephant; but its dimensions were infinitely greater than those of existing Elephants, and superior even to those of the Mastodon and of the Mammoth, both fossil Elephants, the remains of which we shall have to describe presently. [Illustration: Fig. 160.--Teeth of Mastodon.]