MEPIIITES FRONTATA (fOSSIL.) 193 



l^ote on fossil North American s_peciGS of Mephitis. 



I?Iephitis frontata, Coues. 



Mephitis frontata, Couei<, Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr. 2d ser. no. 1, 1875, 

 7, with woodcut. 



From the bone-caves of Pennsylvania. Post-pliocene. 



Specific characters. — Skull extremely high in the middle ; the profile of 

 the upper outline very rapidly descending in a nearly straight line from this 

 point to the occiput and muzzle. Greatest depth of skull without jaw little 

 less than half its length. Zygoma highly arched; the bone in front com- 

 pressed vertically instead of laterally. 



This species is founded on a skull, No. 2232 of the Smith- 

 sonian Museum, obtained by Prof. Baird in the bone-caves of 

 Pennsylvania. The animal was a true Mephitis^ closely related 

 to M. mephitica, if really different. Though the frontal region is 

 always tumid in Mephitis^ there is seen in the recent species 

 nothing like the protuberance and angulation of the vertex of 

 M. frontata. The prominence is also decidedly more posterior; it 

 is something over and above the general tumidity of the inter- 

 orbital region of recent Mephitis-^ the shape is rather as in Gulo^ 

 but even the profile of the latter is here exaggerated. The 

 prominence appears to be mainly due to enlargement of the 

 frontal sinuses, as may be seen in this specimen^ in which the 

 outer tablet of the skull is abraded in places, exposing the 

 interior. With this general elevation is associated a notably 

 higher arch of the zygoma, and the malar is slenderer than in 

 recent species at its anterior portion, where it is curiously nar- 

 rowed vertically instead of being laminar throughout. None 

 of these characters obtain in any of the numerous recent skulls 

 examined, notwithstanding the great variability of the latter. 

 The animal was of the size of the common species. The skull 

 in general bulk is intermediate between various specimens of 

 that of M. mephitica. 



Mr. J. A. Allen* takes exception to the specific validity of 

 the species in the following terms : — 



" Dr. Coues has ventured to describe a ' new 



species ' {M. frontata), based on a fossil skull from one of the 

 bone-caves of Pennsylvania, as it seems to me, unadvisedly. 

 The specimen, though that of a very aged individual, is scarcely 

 larger [....] than the average of specimens from the 

 Eastern States, its chief difference from the average skull con- 



* Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr. vol. ii, no. 4, 1876, p. 333. 

 13 m 



