ZOOLOGY. 387 



AN OLD AMERICAN BEAR.* 



In the period shortly antecedent to that characterized by the existing 

 fauna, there lived in California an animal of the bear family equaling 

 in size the grizzly of our own days. The dental series was distinguished 

 by the absence of distemas, or intervals between the canine and con- 

 tiguous teeth, and therefore the species was generically differentiated 

 from any living form. The Californian species seems, however, to have 

 beipi related to a European ursid, which possessed the same character, 

 and which has been made known as a peculiar generic type under the 

 name Arctothermm. The bear of California has, therefore, been gener- 

 ically identified with this and described as Arctotherium simum. The 

 remains described by Professor Cope were found in a cavern in the car- 

 boniferous limestone of Shasta County, California, beneath several 

 inches of cave earth and stalagmite. 



EXTINCT CAT-LIKE ANEVIALS OF AJIERICA. 



Professor Cope has recentlyt subjected to renewed examination the 

 Felids and certain forms that had been supposed to belong to that fam- 

 ily, and has found that the characteristics found in all the existing spe- 

 cies are wanting in some extinct types that are otherwise closely related. 

 Such are the genera Archcelurus, Nirnravus, Dinictis, Pogonodon, and 

 HoplopUoneus of the American Lower Miocene, and probably also the 

 Prowluriis, JElurogale, and Eusmilus of the European Eocene and Mio- 

 cene. These genera, so far as they have been critically examined, con- 

 trast with living Felids in that there is (1) a distinct carotid foramen ; (2) 

 the condylar foramen does not enter the foramen lacerum posterius; (3) 

 postglenoid and (4) postparietal foramina exist; and (5) an alisphenoid 

 canal is developed. These characters, in the opinion of Professor Cope, 

 are of family value, and consequently the genera so distinguished are 

 segregated under the name Nimravids. In most other characters, as 

 well as in dentition, they agree with the Felids. The several types, it 

 is said, " form an unusually simple series, representing stages in the fol- 

 lowing modifications of parts : (1) in the reduced number of molar teeth ; 

 (2) in the enlarged size of the superior canine teeth ; (3) in the dimin- 

 ished size of the inferior canine teeth ; (4) in the conic form of the 

 crowns of the incisors ; (5) in the addition of a cutting lobe to the ante- 

 rior base of the superior sectorial tooth ; (6) in the obliteration of the 

 inner tubercle of the lower sectorial and (7) in the extinction of the heel 

 of the same ; (8) in the development of an inferior flange and latero-an- 

 terior angle of the front of the ramus of the lower jaw ; (9) in the devel- 

 oi)ment of cutting lobes on the posterior borders of the large premolar 



* Cope (E. D.). The Cave Bear of California. Am. Nat., vol. xiii. Dec, 1879. Sill, 

 Jour., vol. xix, p. 155. 



tCope (E. D.). On the Extinct Cats of America. Am. Nat., vol. xiv, pp. 83Jt-858, 

 Dec, 1880. 



