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The effect of this comparison was to prove that the Anoplotherium, though it presented many points of resemblance with the pigs on the one hand and with the ruminants on the other, differed from both to such an extent that it could find a place in neither group.
When I apply the former term, I merely mean to say that as a matter of fact, the form B, so named, is intermediate between the others, in the sense in which the Anoplotherium is intermediate between the Pigs and the Ruminants without either affirming, or denying, any direct genetic relation between the three forms involved.
The regularity and evenness of the dentition of the 'Anoplotherium', as contrasted with that of existing Artiodactyles, and the assumed nearer approach of the dentition of certain ancient Carnivores to the typical arrangement, have also been cited as exemplifications of a law of progressive development, but I know of no other cases based on positive evidence which are worthy of particular notice.
Like the Anoplotherium and the Palaeotherium, therefore, Archaeopteryx tends to fill up the interval between groups which, in the existing world, are widely separated, and to destroy the value of the definitions of zoological groups based upon our knowledge of existing forms.
In the Cainotherium, also, the second metacarpal is developed, but is much shorter than the third, while the fifth is absent or rudimentary. In this respect it resembles Anoplotherium secundarium. This circumstance, and the peculiar pattern of the upper molars in Cainotherium, lead me to hesitate in considering it as the actual ancestor of the modern Tragulidae.
In the Cainotherium, also, the second metacarpal is developed, but is much shorter than the third, while the fifth is absent or rudimentary. In this respect it resembles Anoplotherium secundarium. This circumstance, and the peculiar pattern of the upper molars in Cainotherium, lead me to hesitate in considering it as the actual ancestor of the modern Tragulidoe.
Again, all the great groups of the Ruminants, the Bovidae, Antilopidae, Camelopardalidae, and Cervidae, are represented in the Miocene epoch, and so are the Camels. The Upper Eocene Anoplotherium, which is intercalary between the Pigs and the Tragulidae, has only two or, at most, three toes.
And many other characters are found to go with this obvious one. Even the very earliest Ungulata show this distinction, which is completely developed and marked even in the Eocene palæotherium and anoplotherium found in Paris by Cuvier. Now, the macrauchenia, from the first relics of it which were found, was thought to belong, as has been said, to the even-toed division.
The regularity and evenness of the dentition of the 'Anoplotherium', as contrasted with that of existing Artiodactyles, and the assumed nearer approach of the dentition of certain ancient Carnivores to the typical arrangement, have also been cited as exemplifications of a law of progressive development, but I know of no other cases based on positive evidence which are worthy of particular notice.
Bembridge limestones, compact cream-coloured limestones alternating with shales and marls, in all of which land-shells are common, especially at Sconce, near Yarmouth, as described by Mr. F. Edwards. One of the bands is filled with a little globular Paludina. Anoplotherium commune. Binstead, Isle of Wight. Planorbis euomphalus, Sowerby. From this formation on the shores of Whitecliff Bay, Dr.
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