984 THE JOHN DAT FAUNA. 



sufficiently preserved to show that the premaxillary bone ascends high on 

 each side of the nasals, so as nearly to reach the frontomaxillary. 



The mandibular rami are robust, and not so high and compressed as in 

 Nimravus and its allies. It deepens anteriorly to the inferior flange, which, 

 though prominent, is not so much produced as in some of the species of 

 later times. The anterior border of the side of the ramus is produced and 

 acute below the superior third of its depth. The chin is deep and flat, 

 with the median line prominent below. The masseteric fossa is very pro- 

 nounced, the inferior border of the jaw at that point spreading outwards, 

 with thick, round, horizontal border. The condyle has an appropriately 

 large horizontal extent, but its vertical diameter is small. The angles are 

 broken from both rami, but they were about as far below the condyle as 

 the elevation of the coronoid process above it. The latter have an elongate 

 anterior border, which turns backwards at the summit, and the posterior bor- 

 der projects as far as that of the condyle. The superior half of the coro- 

 noid process difi"ers from that of all the other Felidce here mentioned in 

 being convex instead of concave. 



Foramina. — The infi-aorbital foramen is large, subround, and a little 

 wider than deep. Its posterior border is in the base of the zygoma, and 

 above the middle of the posterior lobe of the sectorial, when the skull rests 

 on the lower jaw. With the basicranial axis horizontal, it falls above the 

 anterior cusp of the same tooth, so that its position is behind that observed 

 in any of the recent or extinct cats mentioned in this book. The infe- 

 rior border of the lachrymal foramen falls below the superior border of 

 the external infraorbital foramen. The / postparietale is large, and is at the 

 border of the inferior fourth of the parietal bone, measuring from the sum- 

 mit of the crest. Tbei'e is a small mastoid foramen. The f. condyloideum 

 ■anterius is separate from the / lacerum posterius. The / postglenoideum is 

 rather small, and is in the anterior wall of the meatus auditorius externus, 

 near its inner terminus. The foramen magnum is rather small for the size of 

 the skull, and is wider than high. It is not so transverse, however, as in 

 the species already described, as its superior border forms a higher arch, 

 and is without marginal tuberosities. There are three lateral mental fora- 

 mina, one below the second (first) premolar, and the others larger and near 



