294 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Yol. XX^'II, 



(3) 111 the skeleton the manus and pes are pentadactyl, unguiculate, 

 probably plantigrade (Marsh), there is a free centrale carpi {Esthonyx), 

 the humerus has an entepicondylar foramen, the femur a third trochanter, 

 the tibia and fibula are distinct, and the astragalus is slightly grooved above. 



CHAPTER VI. GENETIC RELATIONS OF THE CARNIVORA 

 (CREODONTA, FISSIPEDIA, PINNIPEDIA). 



Analy.sifi. 



Page. 



I. The Creodonta and Fissipedia .... 294 



Outline history of the ordinal classification 294 



Are the Creodonta derived directly from Carnivorous Marsupials? . . . 298 



Supposed affinity of the Creodonta to the " Sparassodonta " (Borhyseninse) 303 



Genetic relations of the Creodonta to the Insectivora 304 



The ancestral Insectivores were more primitive than the ancestral 



Creodonts 304 



Characters separating the Creodonta from the Insectivora .... 306 



Conclusions 307 



Genetic relations between the Creodonta and Fissipedia 308 



Constitution of the Creodonta 308 



The Miacidse as connecting the two suborders 308 



Additional evidence of close relationship between the two suborders 310 



Conclusion 311 



II. The Pinnipedia 312 



Outline historj^ of the ordinal classification 312 



Supposed derivation of the Pinnipedia from the Creodonta 313 



Genetic relations with the Fissipedia 314 



I. The Creodonta and Fissipedia. 



OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE ORDINAL CLASSIFICATION. 



1. THE CREODONTA. 



Incomplete remains of representatives of this order were referred by 

 Cuvier and de Blainville to "les Carnivores," and de Blainville regarded his 

 Arctoci/071 primcevus (1841) as a member of his 'Subursi,' a group including 

 not only the forms now called Procyonidse but also Arctictis, Mydaus and 

 Meles. Zittel (1892, p. 580) states that the discovery of good material of 



