34 SOLENODON PARADOXUS. 



vergent. A small projection of the palate forms a minute tooth medially at 

 the posterior edge of the palate. The tympanic bone is a nearly complete narrow 

 ring, not fused with the mastoid portion of the periotic, but meeting it for a 

 space of about 3 mm. along the ecto-posterior edge. At the antero-lateral termi- 

 nation of the tympanic is the large fissura Glaseri as a groove on the posterior 

 side of the post-glenoid process. There are two large foramina between the 

 ental end of the latter and the pterygoids, the more anterior of which appears 

 to correspond to the foramen rotundus and the more i)osterior, which is slightly 

 the larger, to the foramen ovale. The zygomata are incomplete. The round 

 flat bone, fastened by ligament to the anterior end of the intermaxillaries at tlie 

 ventral edge of the nasal cavity was noted and described by Brandt in his 

 paper of 1833. It serves to support the base of the cartilaginous proboscis and 

 was termed by Brandt the os proboscidis. It is lacking in Solenodon cubanus. 

 It is nearly circular and about 5 mm. in diameter in our specimen. 



The teeth have been thoroughly descril)ed by Brandt, Peters, Dobson, 

 Leche, and more recently by J. A. Allen, who has figin-ed the milk dentition. 

 The tooth formula is li Ci Pi Mi. In addition to the smaller size of the teeth, 

 those of the Cuban species differ conspicuously in the presence of a diastema 

 nearly 2 mm. long between the third upper incisor and the canine; in the al)- 

 sence of an anterior cingulum cusp on the upper canine; and in the form of the 

 second upper premolar, which in the Cuban animal has a prominent ento-])osterior 

 angle giving a nearly triangular basal section to that tooth, whereas in Solenodon 

 paradoxus this angle is not developed and the tooth is nearly oval in outline. 

 All the teeth of the lower jaw are in contact in both species. The last lower 

 molar of .S. paradoxus shows a sliglitly greater i-elative develojiment of the pos- 

 terior cusp than that of S. cubanus. The remarkaljle resemblance in the form of 

 the skull and teeth of Solenodon to those of Myogale was noted by Brantlt. 

 The general resemblance in external form as well, suggests that in these resi:)ects 

 Myogale is a generalized member of the Talpidae that has accjuired a further 

 development of the molariform teeth from the ])rimitive tritubercular condition 

 of the crowns to the more specialized W-shaped type of en )wn. In these respects 

 and in certain points of muscular development, Myogale probably stands in 

 much the same relation to the rest of the Talpidae as does Gymnura to the 

 others of the Erinaceidae. Both are generalized forms bearing many close 

 resemblances to the more primitive Solenodontidae. 



The remarkable deep groove of the large second lower incisor of Solenodon 

 seems peculiar to this genus. In Erinaceus there is a shallow groove on the first 



