400 GEOGRAPHICAL AXD GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



referable to the lemurs, or to a tjpe, Laopithecus (Miocene), stand- 

 ing intermediate between these and the Cebidje, have as yet been 

 discovered on the North American continent. To the extent of 

 our present knowledge, therefore, the type of the Old World mon- 

 keys appears to have had no representatives in the Western Hemi- 

 sphere. 



Numerous remains of Quadrumana are found in the Tertiary de- 

 posits of France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece, indicat- 

 ing for these animals a much broader distribution in past periods of 

 time than they now enjoy. Several of these forms are referred to 

 existing genera, such as the Miocene Colobus grandaevus, from 

 Steinheim, Wtirtemberg, and the Pliocene Macacus priscus and 

 Semnopithecus Monspessulanus, from Montpellier, France. A 

 macaque (Macacus Pliocaenus) has also been cited from Essex, Eng- 

 land, and several forms have been described from the Val d'Arno, 

 Italy. But the greater number of the more ancient species still 

 remain with undetermined relationships. One of the most remark- 

 able of these is the Dryopithecus Fontani, from the Middle Miocene 

 deposits of St. Gaudens, France, and the Swabian Alps, wiiich in 

 stature appears to have rivalled the largest of the existing anthro- 

 poid apes, although probably more nearly related to the gibbon 

 than to any other living member of this group. Two otlier appar- 

 ently anthropoid forms of somewhat smaller dimensions have been 

 described from the nearly equivalent deposits of Sansan, France, 

 and Elgg, in the Canton of Zurich, Svpitzerland, as Pliopithecus an- 

 tiquus and P. platyodon respectively ; these are by some authors 

 considered to be more nearly related to the group of the Semno- 

 pithecinffi, or even to the macaques, while by others, as Rutimej'er 

 and Lydekker, they are referred to the modern genus Hylobates. 

 Of still more doubtful relationship are the singular Mesopithecus 

 Pentelici, from the Mio-Pliocene of Pikermi, Greece, which in its 

 cranial and dental features most nearly approaches Semnopithecus, 

 while in the structure of the limbs it approximates the macaques, 

 and the probably still less simian Oreopithecus Bambolii, from 

 Monte Bamboli, Tuscany. 



Several species of fossil ape have been described from the Siwa- 

 lik Hills (Pliocene), and are by Lydekker referred to the genera 

 Palajopithecus, Semnopithecus, Macacus, and Cynocephalus. If 

 the determination in the case of the last-named genus be cor- 



