570 



LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



that the head was very wide, notwithstanding the absurdly 

 small brain-case. The lower jaw was very deep and heavy and 

 the chin abruptly rounded, with almost vertical front. The 

 very unusual massiveness of the zygomatic arches and the great 

 development of the crests and ridges for the attachment of the 



jaw-muscles, and the short, 

 heavy lower jaw, all indicate a 

 degree of power in the biting 

 and shearing apparatus such as 

 occurred in no other known 

 fcreodont. 



The neck was of medium 

 length, while the body, though 

 actually elongate, was rather 

 short as compared with most 

 other fcreodonts ; the loins 

 were very heavy and must have 

 been extremely powerful in the 

 living animal ; in this region 

 the articulations between the 

 successive vertebrae were more 

 complex than in any other 

 member of the suborder ; re- 

 sembling the structure found in 

 certain artiodactyls. The ribs 

 were long and thick, the chest 

 deep and capacious. Even for a jcreodont, the tail was long 

 and uncommonly thick. 



The limbs, especially the anterior pair, were short and very 

 stout ; the humerus had an immensely developed deltoid ridge, 

 which extended down for two- thirds the length of the shaft, and a 

 very prominent supinator ridge ; the fore-arm bones, particularly 

 the ulna, were heavy and the radius had but a limited power of 

 rotation. The feet were short and broad, with five complete, 

 spreading toes, ending in thick and blunt-pointed claws. 



Fig. 283. — Right pes of \Patriofelis 

 ferox. Cal., calcaneum. As., astrag- 

 alus. Cb., cuboid. A'^., navicular. 

 Cn. 1,2, 3, internal, middle and ex- 

 ternal cuneiforms. (After Wortman.) 



