474 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



capra, Blastoineryx was the ancestor of Cervtis or Cariaaisy^"^ In 

 Volume XX of the American Naturalist (1886, p. 369) he calls 

 ^'Blasfomervx " one of the deer-antelopes with persistent horns and 

 deer-like dentition. Scott in his "Mammalia of the Deep River 

 Beds " (page 167) says that the Deep River species "is in many ways 

 similar to the larger species of i'^/rt^fWifn'A" from the XJpper Miocene 

 of Europe, and perhaps should be referred to that genus, though in the 

 present state of knowledge it would be premature to do so. This 

 doubt is justified by the fact that the mandibular dentition of ^. borealis 

 is still unknown, and we cannot therefore determine whether the lower 

 molars possessed the very characteristic ^ Palccome^-yx-ioXdi,' and it is 

 uncertain whether the type of the European species had developed 

 horns." In 1899 Earl Douglass ^^ expressed the opinion that the so- 

 called Blastomeryx borealis, B. antilopinus, and the species which he 

 described were really Palceomeryx. 



In his paper, "A Complete Skeleton oi Merycodus,''^ Matthew 

 says: "Two groups of the higher ruminants {^Pecora') are found in 

 the American Miocene, each combining characters now peculiar to 

 distinct families. The first includes small hypsodont species related 

 to the antelopes, but with branching, deciduous antlers like those of 

 the deer. The second includes brachydont species, mostly of large 

 size, related to the deer, but with horn-cores or antlers unbranched, 

 probably non-deciduous. The hypsodont group includes Merycodiis 

 (^ Coso7yx') and the \.x\xt. Blastomeryx ; the brachydont includes a 

 number of species which have been variously referred to Dicrocerus, 

 Blastomeryx, and Palceomeryx, and which I leave provisionally under 

 the last-named genus." " On page 127 of the same paper Matthew 

 says: "Douglass has recently described under this genus two large 

 American species, closely allied to the large brachydont forms referred 

 to Blastomeryx by Cope and Scott. Professor Scott had stated in re- 

 gard to the latter that they would probably have to be removed to 

 PalcBomeryx if the lower jaw were known to possess the character- 

 istic fold of the anterior crescent of the molars, and this is the chief 

 reason given by Mr. Douglass for referring his species to the European 

 genus. As indicated above, this character is common to many or all 



12 '« Descriptions of New Vertebrates from the Upper Tertiary of the West," Proc 

 Amer. Pkilos. Soc, Vol. XVII, 1877, p. 223. 



""The Miocene Lake Beds of Western Montana," 1899, p. 20. 



^^ Bull. Amer. Nat. Hist., Vol. XX, Art. VII, March, 1904, p. loi. 



