Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are found in the depths of the Semliki, or Ituri, forest and its north- ward extension. Their nearest ally is the extinct Samotherium (1257), of the Tertiary rocks of Samos and Greece (fig. 37), the males of which are also furnished with a pair of simple horns. On the other hand, in the males of the extinct Indian Siva- therium (1258), Bramatherium, and Hydaspitherium (1259) the horns are branched; Sivatherium having in addition a pair of Fig. 37. Side View of the Skull of Samotherium boissieri, an extinct Ttuminant from the Pliocene of Samos, nearly allied to the Okapi. small simple horns low down on the forehead. Casts of the skulls of two of these gigantic Ruminants are exhibited in the East Corridor, alongside the Giraffe-case. Hetladotherium, of the Tertiary of Greece^ seems to have been hornless. The Okapi is represented in the Corridor by the two strips of skin sent home by Sir Harry Johnston, on the evidence of which the species “ jEquus johnstoni ” was named, as well as by the complete skin of a female forwarded by the same gentleman from the Semliki Forest (fig. 36). The cast of,a male skull is also shown. [Lowei Mammal Gallery.] The Deer Tribe. The Deer or Cervidee are distinguished from the Cervidae other members of the Pecora (see page 13) by the appendages on the head, when present, taking the form of antlers ; the nature of which is fully explained on page 2. Except in the Reindeer, these are present only in the males, and are always periodically shed. When antlers are wanting, the upper canines of the males are always long and tusk-like, as in the Musk-
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