Dlcotijles (Plafijgonm) ccmpresms, Le Coute. 5 



animals were destroyed by other, or carnivorous animals, and then 

 dragged into the burrow, which evidently existed when the animals 

 were placed there. The bones are entire, except where broken from 

 very manifest pressure ; they present no appearance of having been 

 gnawed, or " crunched." In f\ict, a portion which I succeeded in keep- 

 ing intact, except to remove the earthy matter, proved to be a portion 

 of the spine, with the scapulas in proper position, humeri, radiie and 

 ulnse ; the metacarpal bones all in proper position, and the articula- 

 tions were apparently not disturbed since the embedding or death of 

 the animal. The evidence — the undisturbed condition of upward of 

 two feet of superincumbent clay— is to the effect that the animals met 

 their fiite and were embedded before the last submergence of this 

 portion of the globe. 



These bones are the remains of what animal ? 



These remains or bones are those of an animal of the family Suidte. 

 This is evident from the structure of the feet, which in this family 

 have three or four toes, two median, and one or two shorter lateral, 

 shod with hoofs, and the lower incisor teeth, Avhich are beveled for- 

 ward. A comparison of the fossil skull — although not fossil in the 

 ordinary acceptance of the term, yet fossil, because " dug out of the 

 ground "—with that of the domestic hog shows, however, generic 

 diiferences. The skull is more conoidal as regards both cranium and 

 face, presenting no marked angles in common with that of the hog. 

 The median line is convex, its highest point some distance in front of 

 the occiput. There is no intertemporal space; the temporal ridges 

 meeting to form a crest. The superior portion of the occiput is rela- 

 tively much smaller than in the hog. There is an interval of nearly 

 two inches between the canines and premolars, the former being 

 shorter, stouter, and less curved than in the hog. The molars and 

 premolars are arranged in straight lines, those on opposite sides 

 parallel, the palate is very narrow, an inch only in width between the 

 teeth. In front of the superior canines is a deep triangular fossa in 

 which rest the inferior canines in the closed mouth, so that these teeth 

 are covered by the upper lip and probably never lie external to it, or 

 become as long as in the hog. Perhaps the most important osteologi- 

 cal character is the formation and position of the glenoid cavity for 

 articulation with the lower jaw. It is concave and comparatively very 

 small, being only /gths of an inch in median transverse diameter, and 

 situated in the middle of the zygomatic arch 1.8 (li^otli) inches in 

 front of the styloid process. In the hog this process is an inch wider, 

 flat, and rests upon the posterior root of the zygomatic arch, and im- 

 pinges upon the body of the temporal bone, and its posterior border 



