VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 1913 633 



the name Pliocervince is suggested, but as there is no such genus 

 as Pliocervus, this is obviously inadmissible. 



Reverting to America, it may be noticed that in the Publi- 

 cations of California University, Bull. Dep. Geol. vol. vii. pp. 

 335—9, Dr. Merriam has described a peculiar type of horn or 

 antler from the Orindan Miocene of California, which he 

 tentatively assigns to the extinct genus Merycodus, that genus 

 being apparently more or less closely allied to the modern 

 prongbuck {Antilocapra). 



For two short papers on deer {Cervidce), one by Mr. L. Joleaud 

 {Bull. Soc. Geol. France, ser. 4, vol. xii. pp. 468-71) on the 

 systematic position of Cervus pachygenys, of the Algerian 

 Pleistocene, and the other, by Mr. E. Kiernik {Bull. Ac. Sci. 

 Cracovie, 19 13, pp. 449-69), on antlers of Dicrocerus from Poland, 

 bare mention will suffice. Reference has already been made 

 to Mr. Stellin's description of a new Tertiary Cervus from 

 France. 



More interest attaches to a couple of papers on fossil North 

 American camels, in the first of which Mr. Gidley {Smithson. 

 Misc. Collect, vol. lx. No. 26) records the occurrence of a toe- 

 bone of a camel in a superficial deposit at the mouth of the Old 

 Crow River, in the Yukon Territory, in association with remains 

 of mammoth, horse, and bison. The occurrence of the camel- 

 bone confirms, to quote the author's own words, " the theory of 

 the existence of a wide Asiatic-Alaskan land-connection of com- 

 paratively recent date, which for a very considerable length of 

 time served as a great highway for the free transmission of 

 mammals between America and the Old World." In discussing 

 the question whether the Pleistocene North American camels 

 described as Camelops, of which seven species are recognised, 

 are really distinct from the South American llamas {Lama, or 

 Auchenia), Dr. O. P. Hay {Proc. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol. xlvi. 

 pp. 161-200) points out that the northern forms lack the vertical 

 ridges at the antero-external angles of the last two lower molars 

 distinctive of their southern cousins, while their skulls are also 

 longer and narrower, with the upper part of-the nasal bones less 

 expanded, the crowns of their upper molars have larger grinding 

 surfaces, and the lower incisors are less proclivous. It may be 

 mentioned that the ridge in the lower molars of the llama group 

 is also developed in the corresponding teeth of the true camels 

 of the Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills, Northern India. 



