VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 1909 657 



the carnassials, if differentiated at all, are contributed by m . £ 

 or m . §. Third, a primitive group, the Oxyclcenidce, in which 

 the molars are of a generalised type, tritubercular above and 

 tuberculo-sectorial below, with sharp, angulated cusps. 



In the systematic portion of this memoir a number of new 

 Eocene forms are named and described. In connection with 

 this it may be mentioned that in a note published in Science, 

 vol. xxix. p. 620, Mr. O. A. Peterson refers the creodont originally 

 described as Amphicyon superbus to a new genus under the name 

 of Daphccnodon. 



New creodonts from the Egyptian Oligocene form the subject 

 of a short paper communicated by Prof. H. F. Osborn to the 

 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. xxvi. 

 p. 415, in which several new species are described, one of 

 them being assigned to a new genus, under the name of 

 Mctasinopa. 



Reverting to Dr. Matthew's memoir, a few words may be 

 devoted to the Insectivora, which are regarded by the author as 

 a very primitive and ancient group, near akin to the ancestors 

 of placentals as a whole. Their modern representatives — if all 

 are rightly included in a single order — have, however, become 

 so widely sundered by the extinction of intermediate types that 

 it is exceedingly difficult to give any definition of the order other 

 than one based almost entirely on primitive characters. The 

 antiquity of the group is confirmed by the fact that Insectivora 

 occupied a much more important position in comparison with 

 other orders during the Middle Eocene than is the case in later 

 Tertiary times or at the present day. The three extinct families 

 Leptictidce, P antolestidce and Hyopsodontidce are referred by the 

 author to the insectivorous order ; the second and third of these 

 having been hitherto associated with other groups. The Bridger 

 Eocene also contains other Insectivora of more or less uncertain 

 affinity, some of these approximating in dental characters to moles 

 and shrew-mice, while others are more like the Malagasy tenrecs. 

 The Pantolestidce display indications of affinity with creodonts,. 

 whereas the Hyopsodontidce seem to be related to the condy- 

 larthrous ungulates. As regards existing Insectivora, the 

 author is of opinion that these approximate to the less specialised 

 marsupials to a greater degree than is the case with any other 

 placental order ; this being notable in the structure of the 

 auditory bulla, the relations of the mastoid, the incompletely 



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