FOSSIL AND EECENT LAGOMORPHA. 437 



posterior appendage (" Hintoransatz ") not known to exist in Lagonii/s, while the 

 Weiseuavi Rodent lacks the distinctly developed tooth-particle (-'Zahutheil ") in the last 

 lower molar of existing Lac/07ni/s and of those of the "ossiferous breccia"; by which 

 is apparently meant the Prolagus of Corsica and Sardinia. 



We meet here at the outset with several incorrect statements. The upper molars are 

 not, as we shall see later, j)rismatic, and the lower are only incompletely so. By the 

 allei^ed agreement in number of the molars of both Titanomys and Lagonii/s we are 

 to understand that both genera have fovir lower cheek-teeth, the author believing at that 

 time that the existing Lugomys has four mandibular cheek-teeth, while in reality there 

 are five. H. v. Meyer considered the fifth small cylindric tooth ol Laguiiujs to be a third 

 prismatic particle connected with the anterior molar, as is the case in JProlagus. The 

 author further makes a distinction — which is repeated two years later in his ' Fossil 

 Mammals of Qi^ningen,' where incidentally the genus Tltanomijs is mentioned * — between 

 a distinct " Hiuteran.satz " in the 2X)sterior molars of Titanoinys, and the " distinctly 

 developed " posterior or third " Zahutlieil " of the last molar in some Lagomyidoe, without 

 beina: aware that the tw'o are one and the same thing and homologous. 



The characteristics given of the upper molars are not incorrect, but rather vague, 

 showing that the author did not succeed in making out the pattern of the triturating 

 surface, as is confirmed also by his manuscript drawings subseqiiently published by 

 Schlosser. 



In the first edition of his ' Zoologie et Paleontologie francaises,' Gervais figures, without 

 description, two mandibular rami from the Lower Miocene of Saiut-Gerand-le-Puy 

 (Allier) ; the fig. 1 of pi. 46 is named Titanomys trilobus, the fig. 2 T. cisetioviensis. In 

 the explanation of the plate it is stated that the identification with T. visenovieims rests 

 on a comparison with a mandible of this species from Germany in the British Museum 

 (this is under No. 2149.3, from Weisenau). Gervais had no upper molars from the French 

 deposit, but says that those from Germany, which are in Loudon, " sont assez semblables 

 a celles des Lapins, mais beaucoup pkis courtes et plus arquees," adding tiiat they are of 

 the same form as those from the Miocene of the Limagne, called Marcuinomys by Croizet 

 and Fl(ityodo)i by Bravard. These are two manuscript names. 



In 1853 Pomel issued a small work of a high standard on the fossil vertebrates of tlie 

 Loire and Allier basins, pretending to be nothing more than a catalogue f . The 

 descriptions are in consequence very short, and as there are no figures, the utility 

 of this excellent publication has been rather limited. The Leporidae family opens J 

 with a new genus, Lagodus, from the Tertiary of Langy ; the only species, L. picoides, 

 scarcely larger than Lagomys pusillus, is based mainly on the upper and lower cheek- 

 dentition, the description of which 1 transcribe at length for future reference. From 

 this it will be seen that the author assigns to his genus Lagodus five upper and four 



* 'Zur Fauna d. Yorwelt. — Foss. Saugethiere etc. vou (Jiningen,' p. 10 (1845). 



t Catal. method, et descr. des Vert. foss. deoouv. dans le Bassiu hydrogr. sup. de la Loire, et surtout dans la 

 VaUee de . . . 1' Allier (1S53). 

 t Op. cit. p. 41. 



