PLEISTOCENE VERTEBRATES FROM CUMBERLAND CAVE 



49 



Badgers from the Pleistocene of North America are relatively httle 

 known. Taxidea robusta, described by Hay (1922, pp. 631-632) from 

 Arizona, is known only from an ulna and part of an innominate bone. 

 This material is not that in which one would expect to find significant 

 characters of specific importance; hence there is Uttle justification in 

 referring it to a living subspecies, as does Hall (1936, pp. 82-83). The 

 Anita, Ariz., material should have been cited as Taxidea sp. 



A specimen of T. taxus, originally described by Cope (1878, p. 227) 

 as T. sulcata, is recorded from the Pleistocene of Washington. Cope 

 (1899, p. 239) also recognized the modern species in the Port Kennedy 

 fauna. 



Table 13. — Measurements {in millimeters) of skull and dentition of Taxidea 



maiylandica and T. taxus 



Measurement 



Taxidea ta.ru3 



U.S.N.M. 



no. 84562 



(Div. Mamm.) 



Skull 



Total length of skull including condyles 



Width across mastoids 



Width across zygomatic arches 



Width of muzzle across canines 



Width of muzzle at infraorbital foramina 



Width between orbits... 



Width across postorbital processes 



Width across postorbital constriction. 



Depth of skull at bullae 



Depth of occiput - 



Width of nasals at posterior points of premaxillaries- 

 Width of nasals at anterior points of frontals. 



Superior detiiition 



P<, anteroposterior diameter along outer wall 



P<, transverse diameter perpendicular to outer wall 



M', greatest diameter 



Ml, transverse diameter perpendicular to postero-external wall. 



Inferior dentition 



Length of lower tooth series, C to Ms, inclusive. 



Length of lower cheek tooth series P2 to Ms 



Ph, anteroposterior diameter. 



Ml, anteroposterior diameter 



Ml, anteroposterior diameter of heel 



1 Approximate. 



Family FELIDAE 



FELIS cf. INEXPECTATA (Cope) 



Figure 28 

 A relatively small quantity of cat material is included in the col- 

 lection. An upper carnassial and a fragmentary left mandibular 

 ramus (fig. 28a and 6), U.S.N.M, no. 11890, with P4 and Mi preserved 



