Cope.] ^^^ [Oct. 7, 



Not so witli the camels. There is no evidence of the existence of the 

 camel line in the old world prior to the late Miocene epoch ; and so far as 

 the existing evidence goes, the new world furnished the camel to the old. 



CamelidiB only appear in South American palaeontology in the genus 

 Auchenia, in Pliocene time, in the Pampean beds. The best known spe- 

 cies are Auchenia weddellii and A. intermedia of Gervais. It is curious 

 that M. Ameghino, in his report on the fauna of the Miocene age found on 

 the River Parana, which contains the ancestors of so many Pliocene 

 genera, finds none that stand in that relation to the llamas. 



The EsCHATiiD.'E includes a single genus represented by large species 

 of North America and Mexico. 



We now reach the division of the Artiodactyla, which is especially 

 characteristic of the present period ; the Booidea, or, as it is sometimes 

 called, the Pecora. It embraces more numerous species than any existing 

 division of the Ungulata, and presents considerable difficulties to the 

 zoologist who would represent the relations of its contents. As a division 

 it is however well defined by the following peculiarities. 



The third and generally the second superior premolar teeth possess 

 an internal crest as well as the fourth. The inferior premolar teeth have 

 oblique transverse crests. The keel of the distal extremity of the meta- 

 podial bones extends to the front of the condyle. The lateral metapodials 

 are represented by their extremities only, the middle portion having dis- 

 appeared. The median pair are united into a cannon bone. There are no 

 superior incisors, The odontoid process of the axis vertebra is trough- 

 shaped. The stomach is divided into three or four parts. 



The lowest family of the series is that of the Moschid^. In its hard 

 parts it differs from the other Bovidse in the simplicity of the anterior 

 (second) superior premolar, which is without the internal crescent found 

 in the other Booidea. In this respect it is intermediate between that divi- 

 sion and the Cameloidea, where the fourth premolar only possesses the 

 internal crescent. But two genera of Moschidoe are known, Dremothe- 

 rium from the Lower Miocene of France, and the living Moschus. Both 

 lack horns and have well-developed canine teeth. The origin of this 

 group is clearly from the Tragulida^, and the genus of that family which 

 approaches nearest to it is Amphitragulus, which indeed only difiers 

 from it in dentition in the imperfection of the internal crest of the third 

 superior premolar. In turn, Dremotherium must be regarded as ancestral 

 to Palieomeryx, the most primitive genus of the Bovidoe. 



The GiRAFFiD^ differ (see table of families) in the mode of attachment 

 of the horns. These are originally separate from the skull, but become 

 attached to it like the epiphyses on the extremities of the bones of the 

 skeleton. Their dental characters are like those of the Cervidse and the 

 lower Bovidse, the molars being short crowned or brachyodont. It 

 may be that the condition of the horns in Giraffa represents the mode of 

 origin of the horns of the Bovidae, and that the genus is simply to be 

 reckoned a primitive type in that family. The specialization of the long 



