MAMMALIA. 



No. 4. [1251] Mesopithecus Pentelici, Wngner. 



Head (cast), ou pedestal. Tliis interest- 

 ing fossil was discovered by M. Gaudry in 

 the Pliocene deposit, near Pikermi, in 

 Attica. The MesopitJiecus was a small 

 monkey allied to the Doucs, or ordinary 

 long-tailed monkeys of the East, in the 

 shape of its head, which is rounded, and 

 in its limbs to the Wanderoo of Ceylon. 

 The abundant remains (twentj'-flve indi- 

 viduals having been found at Pikermi) 

 show that the animal lived in troops and 

 indicate that Greece in Tertiary times 

 was alive with curious monkeys. The 

 original of this interesting specimen is in 

 the Museum of the University of Munich. 



No. 5. [5] Dryopithecus Fontani, Lartet. 



Lower Jaw (cast), with pedestal. Of 

 this extinct monkey, Sir Charles Lyell 

 states "that in anatomical structure, as 

 well as in stature, the Dryoj)itheeus came 

 nearer to man than any quadrumanous 

 species, living or fossil, before known to 

 zoologists." Prof. Owen, however, arrives 

 at a different conclusion; and the generally 

 received opinion is, that it stood inter- 

 mediate between the Gibbon and Semno- 

 phithecus. It was therefore far removed 

 from the human type, for the Quadrvmana recede from man in the following 

 order, making cranial character the test; Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orang, Gibbon. 

 The Canines are less developed than in the Gorilla, and in this respect the 

 Dryopithecus makes a nearer approach to Man. The fore part of the coronoid 

 process is slightly convex, as in the Gibbon; in Man, the Gorilla and Chim- 

 panzee, it is concave. This interesting fossil was discovered by M. Fontan, 

 in 1856, in the fresh water Miocene, at Saint Gaudens, Southern France, and 

 is preserved in the Museum of the Garden of Plants, Paris. 



ORDER CARNIVORA. 



All the Carnivores have incisors, canines and molars — the canines 

 being always longer than the other teeth, and showing at a glance 

 the nature of their appointed food. The molars graduate from a 

 trenchant (as in the Cat) to a tuberculate form (as in the Bear) in 

 proportion as the food deviates from one strictly of flesh to one of 

 a more miscellaneous kind. The more the animal feeds on living 

 prey, the less numerous the molars. The Felidije have f;f premolars, 

 and ^:| molars; the Canidoe and UrsidcB \\a.\e p ^\^, m |;|. Clavicles 



