526 LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



foramen and the femur retained a trace of the third trochanter, 

 both of which are lost in the modern members of the family. 

 The feet were not at all canine in type, but rather resembled 

 those of the ancient and unspecialized flesh-eaters. There 

 were five digits in manus and pes and were not arranged in 

 parallel pairs, but diverging ; the metapodials were of oval 

 cross-section, not squared, and their lower ends, which articu- 

 lated with the first row of phalanges, had hemispherical sur- 

 faces, not semicylindrical. The claws were sharp and a remnant 

 of former retractility was to be observed. Such an animal 

 could hardly have been a strong and enduring runner and its 

 structure suggests that it captured its prey by stalking and 

 leaping upon it. The wolf-like head, with cat-like body, tail 

 and limbs, made a strange combination, not closely paralleled 

 by any existing carnivore. 



Through the Oligocene the phylum was carried back by 

 the several species of '\Daphoenus, assuredly the ancestor of 

 '\Daphoenodon and decidedly more primitive in many respects. 

 The Oligocene genus was a much smaller animal than its lower 

 Miocene successor, the larger species hardly equalling a Coyote ; 

 the teeth were smaller and more closely set, but the molars 

 were proportionately large, while the carnassials were less 

 finished and effective shearing blades. The skull was less 

 distinctively dog-like and had a smaller brain-case, with very 

 prominent sagittal and occipital crests, a longer cranium and 

 shorter face ; the tympanic bones were very small and so 

 loosely attached to the skull that they are rarely found, a very 

 striking difference from all existing dogs. The backbone was 

 remarkable for the unusually large size of the lumbar vertebrae, 

 a point of resemblance to the cats and suggesting that fDa- 

 phoenus had great powers of leaping ; there was a long, heavy, 

 leopard-like tail, and the caudal vertebrae were very like those 

 of the long-tailed cats. The limbs and feet were similar in 

 character and proportions to those of fDaphoenodon, but the 

 astragalus was less grooved for the tibia, the claws were rather 



