| OCR Text |
Show 324 DR. C. J. FORSYTH MAJOR ON FOSSIL GIRAFFIDJE. [May 5, cavities filled with matrix exactly the same as those beneath the so-called unpaired horn of the Giraffe. So that what in the figure appears as the posterior half of the nasals is in reality situated in the frontal region behind the nasals. W e have thus here the homologue of the median protuberance of the Giraffe. The postorbital portion in the Siwalik hornless skull is a little more elongated than in Sivatherium and Hydaspitherium, and would have exactly the form of Hydaspitherium if the horns of this genus were removed; in the hornless skull the superior profile is nearly horizontal. In the Helladotherium from Pikermi the parietal region is more elongated still, as has been already stated. Gaudry describes on its middle a feeble elevation of 2 cm. by 8 cm. in length, adding that it corresponds perhaps to a sort of horn or central pyramid. The examination of the original preserved in the Paris Museum showed m e that we have in reality two crests, as is visible too in the side view, diverging a little forwards and circumscribing a sort of elevated plateau, which in front is about 1 decim.broad, at the back 75 millim. Helladotherium duvernoyi. Side view of skull, one-sixth nat. size (after Gaudry). Pikermi, Attica. In front of these the profile runs nearly horizontal as in Samotherium, and very different from the proclivous direction in the Siwalik skull, which besides is much higher in this part. The orbits in both skulls are relatively small as in Sivatherium and Hydaspitherium ; in the Helladotherium from Pikermi they are situated farther back. There are several other differences between the two skulls which for the present purpose may be omitted. On the whole m y conclusion is that, apart from a general likeness, they are so different from each other, that far from belonging to the same species they must even be ascribed to different genera. The Siwalik skull, except its being hornless, approaches so near to the horned forms of the Siwaliks just mentioned, but especially to Hydaspitherium, that I think the original view of Falconer, which later on was shared by Murie, is not so far from the truth as has been since supposed. Falconer considered it to be the female of Sivatherium, the only one of the three |
