446 FOSSIL QUADRUMANOUS REMAINS 



Description of the Fossil mentioned in the preceding Letter. By 

 Rtchard Owen, Esq., Hun terian Professor at the Royal College 

 of Surgeons. 



The fossil, the circumstances connected with the discovery 

 of which are above described, was submitted to me for exa- 

 mination by Mr. Wood, and it was with peculiar interest and 

 gratification that I found it to present unequivocal evidence 

 that it was a part of the skeleton of a true quadrumanous 

 species. It consists of the alveolus of the last molar of the 

 right side of the lower jaw, with the anterior part of the base 

 of the coronoid process, and the tooth entire, in its place. — 

 The crown of the tooth presents five tubercles, the four ante- 

 rior ones being arranged in two transverse pairs, the fifth 

 forming the posterior heel or * talon.' This conformation of 

 the crown of the last molar of the lower jaw, is characteristic, 

 as is well known, of two families of catarrhine or Old World 

 monkeys — the Se?nnopithecidce, including Semnopithecus and 

 Colobus, and the Macacidae, including Macacus, Cynocepha- 

 lus, and Papio* 



In the Semnopitkecidae the fifth tubercle or talon is large 

 but simple. In most of the Macacidae it presents two cusps, 

 the outer one being much larger than the inner one. This 

 character is well marked in the fossil, which induces me to 

 refer it to the lower group, or Macacida ; and after a close 

 comparison with several recent species, it appears to me to 

 come nearest to the true macacques. 



But the fossil exhibits the following differences from the 

 recent Macaci. The whole tooth is rather narrower in pro- 

 portion to its length : the transverse ridge at the anterior part 

 of the tooth, crossing the base of the two anterior tubercles, 

 is a little more prominent, and passes more obliquely from 

 the outer to the inner side : the second transverse ridge unit- 

 ing the first pair of tubercles, rises nearer to their summits. 

 The portion of jaw is more compressed than the corresponding 

 part of the jaw in the recent Macaci ; (compare fig. 58, b) : 

 the internal wall of the socket of the tooth is flatter and much 

 thinner ; (this character of the fossil is well shown in fig. 58, c): 

 the ridge on the outer side of the alveolus, which forms the 

 commencement of the anterior margin of the coronoid pro- 

 cess, begins closer to the tooth, (as is shown in figs. 57 and 

 58, a). These characters are sufficiently important and well- 

 marked to establish the specific distinction of the macacque 

 to which the portion of jaw belongs, and are the more valu- 

 able as corroborating the evidence already adduced in proof 

 that the fragment in question is a true fossil of the stratum 

 in which it was discovered. 



