LÖNNBERG, ON A NEW ORYCTEROPUS FROM NORTHERN CONGO. 33 



raore eagerly and Avith more bopefulness for the ancestors 

 of these animals. It is, no doubt, difficult to express any 

 opinion at once before a careful study and comparison of 

 the skeletal parts have been made, but to judge from the 

 structure of the tarsus and some other characters it does 

 not seem impossible that the ancestors of the Tubulidentata 

 may be found among the Condylarthra or some related types 

 of early mammals. It is also of interest in this connection 

 to consider that Elliot Smith ^ regards the brain at Onjc- 

 teropus to resemble »an exceedingly simple ungulate brain» 

 more than anything else. 



Additioiial remark. 



Since the above already was in print, I have had the 

 pleasure of receiving from the author a paper written by 

 Ameghino and pubhshed in Buenos Aires the 30th of Sep- 

 tember this year. This paper bears the titJe »La perforacion 

 astragahana en el Orycteropus y el origen de los Oryctero- 

 pidae».- In this Ameghino describes the perforated astraga- 

 lus, and the calcaneus of Orycteropus and he compares these 

 bones with the corresponding ones of several other animals, 

 especially members of Dasypodidce and the extinct Stegothe- 

 riidce. This comparison, as he thinks, proves that »the men- 

 tioned bones of Orycteropus are constructed af ter the same 

 plan as those of the Dasypodidce, and the differences, which 

 distinguish the two bones of Orycteropus from the correspon- 

 ding ones of some primitive armadillos are much smaller than 

 those existing between the same bones of actually living ar- 

 madillos» (translation). The differences between Priodontes 

 and Orycteropus Ameghino regards as a result of recent spe- 

 cialisation, but several likenesses in construction of these 

 bones in Orycteropus and Pseudostegotherium he declares to be 

 primitive characters indicating a common origin. This belief 

 compels him to express as his opinion that the extinct fa- 

 mily Stegotheriidm has given off two principal branchés, the one 

 Tatusiidce the other Orycteropodidce'' and he adds that Stego- 



^ Tran«. Linn. Soc. 2nd Ser. Vol. VII pt. 7. 



- An. del Museo National de Buenos Aives T. XIII (Ser, 3a, t. VI) 

 p. 59 ä 95. 



^ Ameghino writes always Orycteropidce. 



Arkiv för zoologi. Band 3. N:o -i. 3 



