He
presented these figures with an explanatory memoir at the Academy, and
announced them as belonging to some creation preceding the present,
since no such animals had ever existed in our own geological period.
Such a statement was a revelation to the scientific world: some looked
upon it with suspicion and distrust; others, who knew more of
comparative anatomy, hailed it as introducing a new era in science; but
it was not till complete specimens were actually found of animals
corresponding perfectly to those figured and described by Cuvier, and
proving beyond a doubt their actual existence in ancient times, that all
united in wonder and admiration at the result obtained by him with such
scanty means.
It would seem that the family of Pachyderms was largely represented
among the early Mammalia; for, since Cuvier named these species, a
number of closely allied forms have been found in deposits belonging to
the same epoch. Of course, the complete specimens are rare; but the
fragments of such skeletons occur in abundance, showing that these
old-world Pachyderms, resembling the Tapirs more than any other living
representatives of the family, were very numerous in the lower
Tertiaries.
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