PLEISTOCENE JAGUARS McCRADY ET AL. 503 



It is to this material that ours is certainly most closely related. We 

 began by calling our first specimen P. atrox because of the striking 

 similarity of shape of all the parts. We recognized that it was small 

 and, at first, thought it was possibly young and immature at the time 

 of death. However, the removal of the rock from the surface of the 

 bones, which permitted a clear view of the epiphyseal regions and 

 sutures, and the discovery of a second individual settled the question of 

 maturity. The epiphyses are completely united to the diaphyses, the 

 sutures in the skull are in most regions wholly overgrown, and the 

 tips of the canines and cusps of the premolars show wear. Both of 

 these, then, were old and fully grown individuals and as such are 

 definitely too small to be P. atrox unless there exists a small race of 

 that species, a condition that has not thus far been proved. 



In deciding whether they belong to any previously described form 

 it is necessary to compare them with the parts that have been available, 

 and from which the other types have been defined. Unfortunately, 

 P. augusta and P. veronis were based solely upon upper carnassials, 

 and so the investigation must begin there. Comparison of the type 

 specimens with each other and with our material reveals minor mor- 

 phological differences among the three in the proportion of width 

 across the protocone to the greatest length of the tooth, in the shape 

 of the cranial border, and in the development of the anteroexternal 

 cuspule; but except for size the features of the type specimens can 

 all be matched among contemporary jaguar teeth. The species 

 veronis is invalid, then, as it cannot be separated from the previously 

 described augusta; and if augusta is defined in terms of the upper 

 carnassial alone, there is nothing to keep our material out of that 

 category (species or subspecies as the case may be). 



It is true that Leidy included in his description of the type of 

 P. augusta a piece of humerus that did not belong there, but if we 

 eliminate that, the definition of P. augusta is : a true cat having a P* 

 too large for panther or jaguar and too small for P. atrox. To the 

 question, "Is this a valid type?" the answer must depend upon meas- 

 urements and statistical analysis of the length of the P* in the three 

 fossils {P. augusta^ P. veronis^ and our specimen from Salt River 

 Cave) , and in P. onca and P. atrox ^ since the panther can be eliminated 

 at once as altogether too small in that feature. The data are as 

 follows : 



The greatest length of the crown in the upper carnassial in our 

 fossil is 31.2 mm. In the types of P. augusta and P. veronis this di- 

 mension, as we measure it, is 33.3 mm. (The measurements given by 

 Simpson for these two types are slightly different, but their average 

 is about the same as our figure.) The data for Panthera onca are 



