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and powerful species described from tlie Indian Territory by Cope 

 lived contemporaneously with the hairy mammoth, as evidenced by 

 the commingling of their skeletons. There can be little or no 

 question but that the hairy mammoth was contemporaneous with 

 man in North America as well as in Europe. Their geological 

 range is from the close of the Eocene to the latter part of the Pleis- 

 tocene. 



The accompanying illustration will give a fairly good idea of 

 what some of these saber-toothed cats were like. Of course, one can 

 not say that the animals were colored as the artist has represented 

 them in his drawing. Perhaps there is more reason to believe that 

 their markings, if they had any, were spots rather than bars, since 

 spots are more primitive than bars. The figures were made from 

 a skeleton of HoplopJwneus occidentalis, Leidy, recently constructed 

 by Mr. E. S. Piggs in the University of Kansas Museum, and the 

 artist had most perfectly mounted models of various recent cats to 

 aid him in the restoration. 



The chief peculiarities of the animal as seen in the picture are the 

 extraordinarily elongated canine teeth. It will also be noticed that 

 the tail is of unusual length and that the legs are short. The animal 

 measured about seven feet in length aside from the tail. The lower 

 jaws have a downward projection in front, as the picture shows, due 

 to a flangelike widening of the jawbones, which doubtless served as 

 a protection to the teeth, preventing their injury or loss. In some of 

 the larger forms, from South America, this flange was not present, 

 while the canine teeth were even more elongated than is the case 

 with this species, attaining a length of over six inches and protrud- 

 ing far below the jaws when closed. Indeed, so far did they pro- 

 trude that it was impossible for the mouth to be opened wide enough 

 to permit anything to pass them. Skulls of these South American 

 saber-tooths have been found, it is said,- and one can readily believe 

 the statement, in which the points of these teeth had become fastened 

 in the lower jaws during life, preventing closure of the mouth, 

 and in consequence casing starvation! It is difficult to quite 

 understand just how these animals killed their prey. Doubtless 

 some used their teeth as daggers, with a downward thrust, the 

 mouth being closed. For this use the teeth were admirably 

 adapted, being long, curved, and flattened, with each thin edge finely 

 serrated. 



In some of the most highly specialized of these animals the 

 molar teeth in the back part of the jaws had been reduced in number, 

 so that only one remained above and below on each side. 



It is a pretty well established fact in natural history that such 

 peculiar characters when once acquired are never lost. If this be 



