174 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1879. 



semblance to other families. The genus Diniclis, above defined, 

 has been shown by Leidy to possess two more inferior molars 

 than Felis, or three more than Neofelis and Lynx, as in the 

 Mustelidse. The extinct Pseudselurus and the living Cryptoprocta 

 have but one less molar than Dinictis, lacking the posterior 

 tubercular. Nimravus has the same number of molars as Pseu- 

 dselurus, but lacks the first premolar instead of the last true 

 molar. In Hoplophoneus we first find the number of molars as in 

 the existing genera, viz., Pra. m. j. Other characters of this 

 genus are, however, of a generalized kind. 



I here recall the statement that the genera of Felidse fall into 

 two series, which are distinguished by the forms of the anterior 

 part of the mandibular rami, and generally by the large size of 

 the canine teeth to which the former are adapted. This distinc- 

 tion appeared early in Miocene, or Oligocene time, in fact in the 

 oldest of the cats of which we have any knowledge. The genera 

 with large canines or Maehserodontine line were then represented 

 by Dinictis, and the Feline line by Pseudselurus. It is interest- 

 ing to observe that these genera differed from their latest proto- 

 types in the same way, viz.: (1) in the presence of more numer- 

 ous inferior molars ; (2) in the presence of a heel of the inferior 

 sectorial ; (3) in the absence of an anterior cusp of the superior 

 sectorial. In the case of Dinictis one other character of primi- 

 tive carnivora may be noticed, viz.: the absence of the cutting 

 lobes on the posterior edges of the superior and inferior premolars, 

 so distinct in the existing cats. The same feature characterizes 

 the superior premolars of Pseudselurus, but the inferior premolars 

 have the lobes. In the existing Cryptoprocta, which Gervais has 

 shown to be nearly allied in dentition, to Pseudselurus, the lobes 

 are wanting from both jaws, but this genus adds to this primitive 

 character another of modern significance, viz., the presence of 

 the anterior cusp of the superior sectorial. Moreover Crypto- 

 procta has another peculiarity which recalls the genera of the 

 Eocene Creodonta, in the well-developed interior tubercle of the 

 third premolar, a character unknown in Miocene or existing Car- 

 nivora. That genus is evidently, like the Lemuridse, also of Mad- 

 agascar, a remnant of the Eocene Fauna, which once covered most 

 of the earth, and may be regarded as, on the whole, the most 

 primitive of the Felidse, recent and extinct. 



Following the two lines of Felidse already indicated, we attain 



