(EXTRACTED FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF Till: AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.) 



ARTICLE XXII 



DcscrijUion of an extinct species of American Lion : Felis atrox. By Joseph Isidy, M. D. 



Read May 7, 1852. 



Corresponding in some degree to the relative number in which Carnivora now exist, 

 contrasted with Ungulata, remains of extinct species of the former arc rare in their oc- 

 currence compared with the abundance in which similar remains of the latter are found. 



Until recently no extinct representative of the genus Felis had been discovered in North 

 America, but the especial subject of this communication indicates the former existence of 

 a species which much surpassed in size the recent Tiger and Lion, or the extinct Felis 

 speliea of Europe. 



The species is established upon the left portion of a lower jaw containing the three 

 iimlars almost perfect, and the canine much broken (PI. 34.) The osseous portion of the 

 jaw is very triable, and has a thick envelope of compact peroxide of iron, from which the 

 teeth protrude. Internal to the molars a layer of the latter substance stands up and is 

 impressed upon its other face by a broad bone, which had been in contact. 



The specimen l» longs to this society, and when first observed was in company with 

 eral fragments of bones and a few teeth of other extinct mammalia, without labels, but 

 from the condition of their preservation corresponding closely to that of some specimens, 

 in several instances of the same animals, contained in the collection of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, from ravines in the neighbourhood of Natchez, Mississippi, I have no 

 <!'>ul>t they were derived from the same locality, and probably constitute the donation en- 

 tered upon the minutes of the Society, April 1st, lfllW, of some fossil remains from the 

 vicinity of Natchez, presented by William Henry Huntington, Esq. 



Most of the mammalian remains found at Natchez are impregnated with oxide of iron, 

 i r are very friable, and enveloped in thick layers of this material very compact in character, 

 or frequently in the case of the teeth have large nodules of the same substance attached, 

 usually to the extremities. 



The specimens in the collection of Mr. Huntington, accompanying the fragment of lower 

 jaw, are as follow : — 

 roi . \ . 



