Vol. XXIV, pp. 37-40 February 24, 1911 



PROCEEDINGS 



. OF I'M E 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



THE TYPE LOCALITY OF MELLIVORA ABYSSINICA. 



I Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. ] 



At the time of publishing the description of Mellivora abyssinica the 

 locality from which the type, specimen came was known no closer than 

 " vicinity of Adis Ababa, Abyssinia," and was so given in the original 

 diagnosis.* A letter, recently received at the National Museum from 

 the collector, the Hon. Hoffman Philip, gives the exact locality where the 

 specimen was killed as near the " Suksukki River, a small stream which 

 connects Lake Zwai with Lake flora Schalo; about midway hetween the 

 two lakes, which with others lie hetween 7° and 8° north latitude, ami 

 hetween 38° and :!!)° longitude east. Altitude 4,500 to 5,000 feet." 



— N. Hollister. 



DISCOVERY OF A FOSSIL DELPHINOID CETACEAN, WITH 

 TUBERCULATE TEETH. 



[Published by permission of the Secretars of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



Among the fossil remains of cetaceans obtained a short time since by 

 the National Museum from the Miocene formation of Maryland, is a 

 nearly complete skeleton of a porpoise, which, on examination, proves 

 to he a delphinoid form, that is, a species which may be referred to the 

 family Delphinidse, but has tuberculate teeth. This important specimen 

 enables ns to solve, in part, the hitherto unsolved problem of the origin 

 of the typical porpoises of to-day. It now appears unquestionable that 

 they were derived from forms having teeth with tuberculate or serrate 

 crowns, rugose enamel, and anterior and posterior longitudinal ridges. 

 This form of teeth is indicated in the recent delphinoid genus Stem), in 

 which the crowns have rugose enamel, and, as I have lately discovered, 

 traces of anterior and posterior ridges. 



The beak in the fossil species is short and broad, the symphysis of the 

 mandible moderately long, as in Steno, the supraorbital plates of the 

 frontal large, the cervical vertebrae all free, the atlas with a single trans- 

 verse process, the thoracic, lumbar, and caudal vertebrae short, the trans- 

 verse processes of the luinhars long, narrow, and not expanded at the 

 extremity. 



•smiths. Misc. coll., Vol. 56, Xo. l:'.. n. l. October in, 1910, 



10— Pkog. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXIV, 1911, (37) 



