HISTORY OF THE CARNIVORA 547 



coons proper, in which the tail is of medium length, and five- 

 toed, plantigrade feet, with naked soles. Fossil members of 

 this family are very rare in Tertiary formations and its history 

 is therefore but scantily known ; in the lower Pliocene have 

 been found fragmentary remains with less 

 specialized teeth, which appear to belong 

 to the direct ancestor of Bassariscus. The 

 upper Miocene genus '\Leptarctus was an 

 undoubted member of the family, and. 



Fig. 273. — Dentition of 



while it would seem not to have been in Raccoon (Procyon 

 the direct line of any of the modern forms, '''^°''^' ''"^*. ^]'^^- '• ^• 



external incisor. c, 



it was near to the common ancestry of the canine, p. 4, fourth 

 American genera, so far as the imperfect ||[oiar ^"^ 

 specimens enable us to judge. 



By far the most primitive representative of the family 

 yet discovered is the lower Miocene genus ]Phlaocyon, which 

 connected the Procyonidae with the Oligocene genus of dogs, 

 ■\Cynodictis (p. 529). The dentition resembled that of the 

 latter, with several differences, which were all changes toward 

 the Procyonidae. All the cusps were lower and blunter than 

 in \Cynodictis ; the premolars were small, thick and closely 

 crowded together and the upper sectorial, while still trenchant, 

 had a postero-internal cusp, which is found in none of the 

 Canidae and was a first step toward the tuberculated pattern 

 of the raccoons, and the lower sectorial had a very low cutting 

 blade and large heel ; the other molars of both jaws were low, 

 wide and of subquadrate shape. The skull was short and broad, 

 with the face as much shortened and the orbits as far forward 

 as in Procyon, but the brain-case was narrower, less capacious, 

 and the lower jaw had the curved form and much the same 

 character as in the modern genus. The limbs were relatively 

 more slender than in the latter and the five-toed feet were 

 more canine than procyonine in the proportions of the 

 digits. 



The discovery of ]Phlaocijon by Dr. Matthew was an 



