DINOTHERIUM

DINOTHE'RIUM (Gr. terrible or wonderful beast), a remarkable extinct animal, the cranial bones of which are found in the Miocene formations of Germany, France, &c. The animal was pro­vided, like the elephant and the walrus, with a pair of long tusks; but these pro­jected from the end of the lower jaw, which is deflected downwards at a right angle to the body of the jaw. In addition to the two tusks, there were five double-ridged grinders on each side of both jaws. The nasal cavity is large, apparently supplying attachment for a trunk, as in the elephant. No body or limb bones have yet been found so associated with those of the skull, as to show that they belonged to the same animal. Hence the true position of the D. has not been satisfactorily determined. Cuvier and Kaup have referred it to the neighborhood of the tapir, supposing it to have been an inhabitant of large lakes. We give a fig. of Kaup’s restoration. De Blainville, on the other hand, makes it a herbivorous cetacean, like the manatee.