Pachydermata

“ With quite as little personal beauty as the Pachydermata of which I have hitherto treated, the Rhinoceros takes his place among the powerful of the earth. He has no tusks, but bears one or two horns upon his nose. ”

“ The animal has no canines, sometimes no incisors even; sometimes it has as many as thirty-six teeth, according to the species, as naturalists aver; and this is all I have to say about this great lump of flesh, so misshapen outside, yet so regularly formed within. He it is who especially deserves the title pachydermata, his skin being so hard and thick that bullets glance off its surface. ”

“ As the living genera of Pachydermata are more widely separated from one another, than those of any other Order of Mammalia, it is important to fill these vacant intervals with the fossil genera of a former state of the earth; thus supplying links that appeared deficient in the grand continuous chain which connects all past and present forms of organic life, as parts of one great system of Creation. [9]
As the bones of all these animals found in the earliest series of the tertiary deposites are accompanied by the remains of reptiles, such as now inhabit the fresh waters of warm countries, e. ”

“ When feeding, this species sometimes sits upright, and takes its food in the fore paws like a squirrel.
The Paca and the Cutía belong to a peculiar family of the Rodent order which is confined to South America, and which connects the Rodents to the Pachydermata, the order to which the elephant, horse, and hog belong. One of the principal points of distinction from other families is the strong, blunt form of the claws, which in one of the forms (the Capybara) are very broad, and approximate in shape to the hoofs of the Pachydermata. ”

“ In the extinct population which fills our alluvial and superficial strata, and which has lived upon the deposit just alluded to, there are no longer either palæotheria or anaplotheria, or, in in fact, any of those singular genera. The pachydermata, however, still predominate; and these are of a gigantic size, elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami, accompanied with innumerable horses and several large ruminantia. Carnivorous animals of the size of the lion, tiger, and hyena, had desolated this new animal kingdom. ”

“ The third, and fourth, or Pliocene divisions of the tertiary fresh-water deposites, contain no more traces of the extinct lacustrine genera of the Palæotherian family, but abound in extinct species of existing genera of Pachydermata, e. g. Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, and Horse, together with the extinct genus Mastodon. ”

“ In the same manner the family to which the Horses belong are not only quadrupeds, but they have very thick skin. They are, therefore, classified under the term Pachydermata, made up of two Greek words meaning thick and skin. We often find many of the Mammalia arranged in orders, or large groups, before being divided and sub-divided into families and smaller groups. Thus the Dog family and the Cat family are both included under the order of Carnivora, or carnivorous quadrupeds, which is derived from the two Latin words caro, carnis, flesh, and vorare, to devour ”

“ ANIMAL LIFE IN THE PRAIRIES OF THE NEW WORLD:—HERBIVORA, INSECTIVORA, AND CARNIVORA. WE have seen that the order of Pachydermata, which furnished the Ancient World with the most gigantic species of the terrestrial creation, is represented in the New World by comparatively insignificant types: the Tapir and the Peccary. The first, although far inferior in stature to the elephant, the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, is, nevertheless, one of the largest American Herbivora; the bison, llama, and stag alone exceeding it in size. ”

“ The first species of this extraordinary creature was found by Charles Darwin, who says of it: “Perhaps one of the strangest animals ever discovered; in size it equalled an elephant or megatherium, but the structure of its teeth, as Mr. Owen states, proves indisputably that it was intimately related to the Gnawers [i.e. Rodentia] ... in many details it is allied to the Pachydermata: judging from the position of its eyes, ears, and nostrils, it was probably aquatic, like the Dugong and Manatee, to which it is also allied.” ”

“ Moreover many groups of organisms show in earlier geological periods a richness of development from which they have now fallen far away. For instance, among the mammalia the pachydermata, among the reptilia the salamander and newt, among the articulata the cephalopoda, are at present remarkably reduced;—compare with the legions of ammonites and belemnites of the secondary period the small number of nautilus and cuttle-fish of the seas at the present day. ”

“ The extraordinary thickness of skin which distinguishes certain animals, has induced naturalists to group them together, and call them Pachydermata. This group is again divided according to the still further peculiarities which some of them possess; and in the first subdivision are elephants; distinguished by an enormous prolongation of the upper lip and nose, into what is termed a trunk, or proboscis. The largest animals in the world are to be found among them ”

“ Again, it is to the warmer regions of the old world that the larger pachydermatous animals are confined, such as several species of rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, a tapir, two species of elephant, wild equine animals, as the dziggetai, wild ass, quagga, zebra, etc., and various species of wild hog. The living indigenous pachydermata of America consist of two species of tapir, and two of peccary. On the contrary, America is rich in the edentata, namely, sloths, ant-eaters, armadilloes, etc. ”

“ But in the Palæotheres [Pg 120] of the Eocene, which ranged in size from a large horse to a hare, not a few of the missing links have been found,—links connecting the tapirs to the hogs, and the hogs to the Palæotheres proper; and there is at least one species suggestive of an union of some of the more peculiar traits of the tapirs and the horses. It was among these extinct Pachydermata of the Paris basin that Cuvier effected his wonderful restorations, and produced those figures in outline which are now as familiar to the geologist as any of the forms of the existing animals. ”

“ The distribution of organic beings over the surface of the earth does not depend solely on the great complication of thermic and climatic relations, but also on geological causes which continue almost wholly unknown to us, since they have been produced by the original condition of the earth, and by catastrophes which have not affected all parts of our planet simultaneously. The large pachydermata are no longer found in the New Continent, while they still exist under analogous climates in Asia and Africa. ”

“ Large herbivorous mammals too, though referable to very different orders, bear a strong resemblance to one another, the characteristic differences, so far as the living animal is concerned, appearing chiefly in the head. It was this general likeness that induced Cuvier to form his order, “Pachydermata,” which comprised elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, tapirs, etc., animals that are now distributed into no less than three separate orders ”

“ The first evidence of the existence of mammalia in great numbers is in the tertiary period, when the pachydermata and edentata were so much more abundant than they have ever been since, and when the bimana first appear. ”

“ No remains of mammalia have yet been found in the Plastic clay formation next above the chalk; the admixture of fresh-water and marine shells in this formation seems to indicate that it was deposited in an estuary. Beds of fresh-water shells are interposed more than once between the marine strata of the Calcaire Grossier, which are placed next above the plastic clay.
↑ Cuvier's order Pachydermata, i. e. animals having thick skins, includes three subdivisions of Herbivora, of which the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Horse are respectively examples. ”

“ Bridger, 268, 568, 573; Uinta, 265, 573; Wasatch, 277, 571; Wind River, 274, 571 †Oxyænodon, 555 †Oxyclænidæ, 554, 561, 562, 568, 574 †Oxyclænus, 554 †Oxydactylus, 241, 362, 391, 392 (restoration) , 393 (skeleton fig.) Owen, R., 217, 463, 467, 510, 603, 608 Paca, 183 (fig.) , 185 †Pachyæna, 274, 277, 554, 560 †Pachycyon, 522 Pachydermata, 44, 490, 492, 654 †Pachyrukhos, 227, 462, 478, 479, 639 (restoration) Pacific Coast, Eocene, 104, 111; mingling of mammals, 140; Miocene, 117, 120; Oligocene, 113; Paleocene, 101; Pleistocene, 132; Pleisto. ”

“ The Mammals which lived under the latitudes of Paris and London are only found now in the warmest countries of the globe.
The Pachyderms (from the Greek παχυς, thick, δερμα, skin) seem to have been amongst the earliest Mammals which appeared in the Eocene period, and they held the first rank from their importance in number of species as well as in size. Let us pause an instant over these Pachyderms. Their predominance over other fossil Mammals, which exceed considerably the number now living, is a fact much insisted on by Cuvier. ”

“ There is, however, one animal now in existence, forming one of those singular links before alluded to between the present and the past, of which I will say a few words here, though its relation is rather with a later group of Tertiary Pachyderms than with those described by Cuvier. On the coast of Florida there is an animal of very massive, clumsy build, long considered to be a Cetacean, but now recognized, by some naturalists at least, as belonging to the order of Pachyderms. ”

“ The other large fossil Pachyderms, belonging to the two existing genera of Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus, are found « 792 » very extensively distributed in alluvial debris, in the ossiferous breccia of caverns, and in other pleistocene deposits; and their remains are frequently dug up in the superficial marls, clays, gravel, and sand of England. As the teeth of these animals will occasionally be met with by the collector, a brief explanation of their form and structure may be useful. ”

“ Hicks [391] found Pachytheca in the Pen-y-Glog grits of Corwen in association with Nematophycus, and the two fossils have been found together elsewhere. This association led to the suggestion that Pachytheca might be the sporangium of Nematophycus, and Dawson [392] , in conformity with his belief in the coniferous character of the latter plant, referred to Pachytheca as a true seed.
The best sections of this fossil have been prepared with remarkable skill by Mr Storrie of Cardiff ”

“ The Macrauchenia, however, surpasses these aberrant Ruminants, and equals the Pachyderms in the elevation and extent of its scapular spine: but this process commences about half an inch behind the glenoid cavity, and rises at once to the height of three inches above the plane of the scapula; in which structure we may trace the same tendency to the Ruminant type, as is manifested in the scapula of the Hippopotamus and Anoplotherium; for in most other Pachyderms the spine increases gradually from its extremities to the middle part. ”

“ Pach′yderm, thick-skinned—n. one of an order of non-ruminant, hoofed mammals, thick-skinned, as the elephant:—pl. Pach′yderms, or Pachyder′mata.—adj. Pachyder′matous, thick-skinned: insensible to impressions.—n. Pachyder′mia, a form of elephantiasis in which the skin becomes thick and warty.—adj. Pachyder′moid.—ns. Pachyē′mia, a thickening of the blood—also Pachyæ′mia; Pachy′ma, a genus of fungi consisting of tuber-like growths, some of which are now referred to the genus Polyporus—also Tuckahoe, Tuckahoe truffle, or Indian bread; Pachymē′nia, a thickening of the skin.—adj. ”

“ Conservation planning for threatened flora and fauna must take into consideration the evolutionary potential of populations and taxa ( [44] ) . Ignoring evolutionary potential will lead to losses of diversity that compromise the ability of these groups to adapt and survive in the long-term. In the case of Pachypodium, phylogenetic results presented here show that several species and groups of species are strongly divergent from other Pachypodium (e.g., P. decaryi and most African Pachypodium; Fig. 3) . ”

“ The London Clay and the Eocene of the Isle of Wight have also yielded numerous specimens of those pachyderms, whose identity with the Continental ones has been established by Owen; but they are more fragmentary, and their state of keeping less perfect, than those furnished by the gypsum quarries of Velay and Montmartre. In these the smaller animals occur often in a state of preservation so peculiar and partial as to excite the curiosity of even the untaught workmen. Only half the skeleton is present. The limbs and ribs of the under side are found lying in nearly their proper places ”

“ The genus Pachypodium contains 21 species of succulent, generally spinescent shrubs and trees found in southern Africa and Madagascar. Pachypodium has diversified mostly into arid and semi-arid habitats of Madagascar, and has been cited as an example of a plant group that links the highly diverse arid-adapted floras of Africa and Madagascar. However, a lack of knowledge about phylogenetic relationships within the genus has prevented testing of this and other hypotheses about the group.Methodology/Principal Findings. ”

“ For instance, if it be true among mammalia that the highest types, such as quadrumana, are essentially tropical, may it not be that the prevailing distribution of the inferior pachyderms within the same geographical limits is owing to the circumstance that their type was introduced upon earth during a warmer period in the history of our globe, and that their present location is in accordance with that fact, rather than related to their degree of organization? ”