On the Dentition of Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Owen

Abstract

I. I ntroduction 1. Rhinoceros tichorhinus .—The remains, of the British Pleistocene species of Rhinoceros merit a most careful examination, from their numbers and wide distribution, and the fact that they afford evidence of four species of the genus having roamed through the forests and perished in the floods of that portion of the ancient continent which now forms the British Isles. Of these, the most commonly known and the most widely spread is the Rhinoceros tichorhinus of Cuvier, or “ Rhinocéros à narines cloisonnées ;” it is characterized by the possession of an osseous septum, which completely insulates the one nostril from the other, and stands in direct relation to the development of a very large anterior horn, by the stoutness of its bones, and by certain dental and other peculiarities which it is unnecessary to mention in this place. The discovery of the carcass of this animal in 1771, preserved in the frozen sand of the Wilouji, a tributary of the Lena, proves that, unlike all the existing species of the genus, its hide was without folds, and that it was fitted to endure a climate of considerable severity by its clothing of hair. The remains swept down by the Pleistocene floods, and stored away in the dens of the Pleistocene carnivora, prove that the animals of this species ranged in considerable numbers throughout the Europeo-Asiatic continent (Scandinavia being excepted), north of a line passing through the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caspian Sea, and the Altai Mountains. From the drawing of a