xlvi ANNUAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



separating successively, from the higher mammals, the Ich- 

 thyomorphs, the Implacentals, and the Edentates, and divid- 

 ing the remainder according to the structure of their feet, 

 whether unguiculate or ungulate. Recent species have been 

 described as new, or further illustrated, especially by Ed- 

 wards, Elliott, Flower, Gray, Krefft, Macallister, and Murie. 

 Edwards, especially, has added to our knowledge by the de- 

 scription of new forms, and has made known numerous in- 

 teresting species of Thibet (see Record, p. 318). As has been 

 the case for some years past, the cetaceans have received 

 more attention than any other order. Among extinct mam- 

 mals, the discoveries have been of far more than ordinary 

 interest and importance. Many new types have been dis- 

 covered by Professors Cope, Leidy, and Marsh (see p. 305), in 

 the western portions of the United States, and especially in 

 the State of Kansas and Wyoming Territory : chief of these 

 are (l) the forms which have been referred to the order of 

 Primates by Marsh and Cope (see p. 326), and supposed to 

 be related to the lemurs; (2) several forms related to Pro- 

 boscidians (see p. 307, 337); (3) bats obtained from the eo- 

 cene of Wyoming ; (4) a remarkable type referred by Cope 

 to the order Edentata, and named Pseudotomus by him ; 

 (5) various remains discovered by Cope and Marsh, indica- 

 ting, apparently, genera representing a previously unknown 

 family related to the opossums. These various types have 

 been indicated or described chiefly in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Proceed- 

 ings of the American Philosophical Society, and the Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science and Art (Silliman's). A work infe- 

 rior in value to no other publication of the year, on the Ver- 

 tebrates, is a list of the families of Mammals, with diagnos- 

 tic tables of all the families and sub-families of Educabilia, 

 and lists of genera, by Professor Gill, published by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



Among the mammalia, the species most interesting to all 

 is, of course, man himself; and although comparatively few 

 years have elapsed since systematic investigations were com- 

 menced into his condition in what has been aptly termed the 

 prehistoric period, or the times anterior to authentic records, 

 the amount of tangible knowledge accumulated has already 

 become very great, and the study appears year by year to 



