FOSSIL VERTEBRATES IN THE WEST INDIES. 165 



alternate is to suppose that Amhlyrhiza is a gigantic descendant of 

 some small rodent that got drifted over the intervening sea barrier. 

 Anguilla, it must be remembered, is but a small remnant of an island 

 of very considerable size, as indicated by the extent of the sur- 

 rounding shallow bank. 



The Cuban Discoveries — Ciego Montero — Casimba — Cave 



Fossils. The Fauna — Insectivora — Edentata — Ro- 



dentia — Reptilia. 



Ciego Montero. — The first discovery of fossil mammals in Cuba 

 was made in i860, in the early days of American palaeontology. A 

 lower jaw was found in a warm spring at Ciego Montero, a few miles 

 from Cienfuegos, with other fragmentary fossils. This jaw was 

 exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1867, and is now, I beheve, at 

 Madrid. A drawing of it was sent to Joseph Leidy, who imme- 

 diately recognized it as a relative of Megalonyx and named it Mega- 

 locnus rodens on account of the peculiar position of its tusks which 

 simulated those of the rodents. In 1865, 1871 and 1875 De Castro 

 published articles on extinct animals in Cuba, in which he figured 

 this jaw and also described supposed fossil remains of Equiis and 

 Hippopotamus, and contended that these proved that Cuba had for- 

 merly been a part of the North American continent. These asso- 

 ciates unfortunately tended to discredit the whole paper, especially 

 the hippopotamus tusks. They did not appear to be very old, and 

 were regarded as probably post-Columbian. The Megalocmis jaw 

 was confused with the true Megalonyx and the suggestion was made 

 that it was probably brought over from Central America. 



Carlos de la Torre, professor of zoology at the University of 

 Havana, was well aware that the Megalocmis had really been found 

 in the Ciego Montero spring, and from time to time, as his duties 

 permitted, made further investigations to see if something more 

 could not be found at this locality or elsewhere. He succeeded in 

 finding a few additional specimens here and better material at some 

 other localities, and in 1910 published a notice of these discoveries. 

 The specimens were exhibited by him at the International Congress 

 at Stockholm and Gratz, and were deposited at the American Mu- 

 seum for further study and full publication in a memoir by de La 



