II.— Description of some Fossil Remains of Chæropotamus, Palæotherium, Anoplotherium, and Dichobunes, from the Eocene Formation, Isle of Wight.

Abstract

Plate IV. THAT the freshwater strata of the Eocene formation in the Isle of Wight were once trodden by Pachydermatous quadrupeds, belonging to some of the extinct genera established by Cuvier from the fossils of the corresponding strata of the Paris basin, is so well-established a fact, that some apology may seem necessary for laying before the Geological Society additional evidence of the existence in the above strata of such fossils, after the discovery of the remains of Palœotherium and Anoplotherium already made by Mr. Allan* and Mr. Pratt†. Having, however, been favoured by the Rev. W. Darwin Fox with some fossil remains from Binstead and Sea-field quarries, Isle of Wight, apparently more numerous and better preserved than those which have hitherto been discovered in that locality, they seemed to possess sufficient interest to justify the present communication, as they establish not only the fact of the existence of more than one species of both Palœotherium and Anoplotherium , but likewise of the Chœropotamus Cuvieri ‡, hitherto known only by Cuvier’s description of very imperfect fragments discovered in the gypsum quarries of Montmartre and Villejuif. The specimen of Chœropotamus, in Mr. Fox’s collection, is the right ramus of the lower jaw, wanting only a small portion of the symphysis and the tip of the coronoid process. PL IV. fig. 1, 1a, and 2. All the teeth are present which belong to this portion of the lower jaw, excepting the second spurious molar and the incisors, if they really exist in the Canine