Another doomed race, or abortive experiment of early mammal life,
were the remarkable Deinocerata ("terrible-horned" mammals). They
sometimes measured thirteen feet in length, but had little use
for brain in the conditions in which they were developed. The
brain of the Deinoceras was only one-eighth the size of the brain
of a rhinoceros of the same bulk; and the rhinoceros is a
poor-brained representative of the modern mammals. To meet the
growing perils of their race they seem to have developed three
pairs of horns on their long, flat skulls, as we find on them
three pairs of protuberances. A late specimen of the group,
Tinoceras, had a head four feet in length, armed with these six
horns, and its canine teeth were developed into tusks sometimes
seven or eight inches in length. They suggest a race of powerful
but clumsy and grotesque monsters, making a last stand, and
developing such means of protection as their inelastic nature
permitted. But the horns seem to have proved a futile protection
against the advancing carnivores, and the race was extinguished.
The horns may, of course, have been mainly developed by, or for,
the mutual butting of the males.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390