Smit Original Early Drawing of a Toxodon - Ushering in

SMIT, Joseph (1836-1929).
Toxodon.
Original Illustration in pen, ink and grey wash, heightened in white.
c.1905-1912.
7 1/4" x 10 5/8" sheet.

Original artwork for Henry R. Knipe's Nebula to Man. Illustrated on page 148.

Toxodon (meaning "bow tooth" in reference to the curvature of the teeth) is an extinct genus of South American mammals from the Late Miocene to early Holocene epochs (Mayoan to Lujanian in the SALMA classification) (about 11.6 million to 11,000 years ago).[1][2] It is a member of Notoungulata, one of several now extinct orders of hoofed mammals indigenous to South America distinct from living perissodactyls and artiodactyls. It was among the largest and last members of its order, and was probably the most common large hoofed mammal in South America of its time.