XI. DROMOMERYX, A NEW GENUS OF AMERICAN 



RUMINANTS. 



By Earl Douglass. 



In 1878 Professor E. D. Cope described, under the name Blasto- 

 7neryx borealis^ the larger portions of two skulls of a ruminant from 

 the Ticholeptus (Deep River) beds of Smith River valley in Montana. 

 Later he published a figure of the skull,- which is evidently in part a 

 restoration from the two skulls (Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., No. 8132 and 

 No. 8133). 



The name Blastovieryx"^ had been proposed by Cope in 1877 for 

 a posterior lower tooth of a small ruminant, in case the specimen 

 should be found to represent a new genus. The tooth was obtained 

 from the upper Miocene ("Loup Fork") deposits of northwestern 

 Colorado. 



In 1879 ^''■- J- L. Wortman found in the Mascall (Cottonwood 

 Creek) beds of Oregon some incomplete upper jaws, teeth, and 

 bones of limbs and feet, which Cope referred to Blastomeryx borealis.*' 



The Princeton Scientific Expedition of 1891 discovered a smaller, 

 but closely related, species in the same locality and horizon from 

 which Cope's type of Blastomeryx borealis had been obtained. To 

 this species Scott gave the name Blastomeryx antilopimts} The pos- 

 terior portion of a skull, a radius, part of an ulna, a nearly complete 

 tarsus, and anterior and posterior canon-bones were figured and 

 described. 



Concerning the generic reference of this genus Scott said ( ' ' Mam. of 

 Deep River Beds," p. 167) : "This Deep River species [^Blastomeryx 

 borealis'] is in many ways similar to the larger species of Palceomeryx 

 from the Upper Miocene of Europe, and perhaps should be referred 

 to that genus, though in the present state of knowledge it would be 



'"Description of New Vertebrata from the Upper Tertiary Formations of the 

 West," Proc. Atner. Philos. Soc, 1878, p. 222. 



2'<The Artiodactyla," American Naturalist, Vol. XXII, 1889, p. 129, fig. 19. 

 ^Geographical Survey West of the looth Meridian, Vol. IV, Part II, p. 350. 

 ^Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, 1886, p. 359. 

 ^ " Mammalia of the Deep River Beds," pp. 168-178. 



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