VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 1912 9 



honour of the late Prof. Burmeister, the pioneer of Argentine 

 palaeontology. 



The titanotheres of the Uinta beds of Utah have engaged 

 the attention of Mr. E. S. Biggs, who, in addition to naming a 

 new genus and several species {Field Mus. Geo/. Pub/, vol. iv. 

 pp. 17-41), comments on the rapid evolution and short life of 

 some of the groups of these perissodactyles. 



Turning to marine mammals, it may be mentioned that in 

 the group of Sirenia the scapula of Halitherium schinzi was 

 described in 191 1 by Mr. O. Schmidtgen (Centralblatt fur Mineral, 

 191 1, pp. 221-3); an d also that during the year under review 

 Dr. R. Issel {Mem. R. Ac. Lincei, ser. 5, vol. ix. pp. 119-25) has 

 contributed a note on the corresponding bone of the allied genus 

 Felsinotherium. The first-named writer has likewise recorded 

 {Zool. Jahrbuch, 191 2, suppl. 15, vol. ii. pp. 449-95) some new 

 observations with regard to the structure of the pelvis and 

 hind-limb of Halitherium. 



Fossil whales akin to the modern rorquals and tinners form 

 the subject of an article by Prof. F. W. True in vol. lix. No. 6 

 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, which mainly 

 consists of a summary of a paper in Danish by Dr. H. Winge. 

 Both writers consider that among a multitude of generic 

 divisions which have been proposed, Aulocetus, Cetotherium, 

 Herpetocetus, and Plesiocetus are valid ; and of these, as well 

 as of the two allied existing genera, Balcenoptera and Megaptera, 

 diagnoses based on osteological characters are appended. 



It is gradually becoming evident that the South American 

 freshwater dolphins of the family Iniidoe, now represented by 

 the genera Inia and Pontoporia, each with a single species, had 

 numerous forerunners during Tertiary times. The latest 

 addition to the list is Hesperocetus californicus, a genus and 

 species established by Prof. True {Smithson. Misc. Collect. 

 vol. Ix. No. n) on the evidence of an imperfect lower jaw, with 

 teeth, from the Californian Tertiaries. This genus, which is 

 provisionally referred to the Iniidcv, is remarkable for the length 

 of the symphysis of the lower jaw and the large size of the 

 teeth, which recall those of the extinct Delphinodon, classed by 

 the author with the Delphinidce. Other extinct Iniida: are 

 Saurodelphis, Pontoplanodcs and Ischyrorhynchus, all exclusively 

 American. 



In a second article, Dr. True {Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 



