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Some Early Mammals and the Story of the Horse: Cuvier's

Xiphodon,¹ so named by Cuvier on account of the shape of its teeth, was a small and delicate animal, long, with slenderer limbs than the Anoplotherium; its feet were provided with two toes, and the tail was short (see restoration in Plate XXXIX.). X. gracilis was obtained from the lignites of Débruge, near Apt. It was some three feet high, and of about the size of a chamois, but lighter in form, and with a smaller head. Cuvier says of this creature, "Its course was not embarrassed by a long tail; but, like all active herbivorous animals, it was probably timid, and with large and very mobile ears, like those of the stag, announcing the slightest approach of danger. Neither is there any doubt that its body was covered with smooth hair, and consequently we only require to know its colour in order to paint it as it formerly existed in this country, where it has been dug up after so many ages." Instead of resorting to rivers and lakes, this graceful little creature probably kept to the dry land and fed upon aromatic herbs.

Discoveries, chiefly made since Cuvier's day, have shown that these ancient herbivorous mammals had carnivorous enemies, which doubtless kept down their numbers-not lions and tigers, but certain lower and less "specialised" creatures, from some of which the latter are descended.

The nearest living ally of our Palæothere, that once inhabited Europe in great numbers, must be sought for a long way from home; and it is highly instructive to observe that the further we wander away from the present down "the corridors of time," the further we must travel, geographically, to find creatures at all matching those that lived in early ages of the world's history. 1 Greek-xiphos, sword; odous, odontos, tooth.