568 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERKITORIES. 



LOXOLOPHODON CORNUTUS, Cope. 



LoxoJopJtodon cornuixs. Cope, Proceedings American Philosophical Society, 1872, p. 560, 

 (Auiiust 19;) loc. vit., 1872, p. 488, (August 22.) The short-footecl Ungulata of the 

 Eocene of Wyoming, p. 8, (April 14, 187:i.) JtobdnUciis cormitus, Co\w, American Nat- 

 uralist, 1872, p. 774. TUiotrran ijrandin, Marsh, American Journal of Science and 

 Arts, October, 1872, (published September 21,) /(Zc Marsh. 



Established on tlio reiuiiiiis of a single individual, which consist of a 

 nearly peiiect cianiuni, the right scapula complete, several vertebiiB, 

 including the sacral, the first or second rib, the pelvis complete, and the 

 entire right femur; also i)robabIy the proximal end of a radius. 



The species is lemarkable for the narrow form of the cranium^ its 

 width at the middle being one-fourth its length. A little in front of the 

 middle are situated the horn-(;ores. These diverge, the upper portion 

 haxing an outward curvature. The base of each is triangular with 

 obtuse angles, in section, and the inner angle is the section of a rib-like 

 projection which extends across the front to its fellow and rises half 

 way up the horn-core. Above its rather abrupt termination the core 

 is trausxersely compressed, with oval obtuse apex. The. core measures 

 M. .240 (9.5 inches) from its base in front, M. .108 (4.25 inches) in width 

 at the base behind, and .077 (3 inches) in diameter at the apex. A slight 

 swelling of the sides of the muzzle descends obliquely forward from the 

 base of each horn, which enlarges below into a prominent rib, Which 

 incloses the alveolus of the canine tusk. In front of the horns the muz- 

 zle is roof-like; anteriorly it flattens out, and swells a little above the 

 posterior end of the nasal meatus. In trout of this it exjiands again, 

 and rises gently to the extremity of the bilobed nasal shovel, which 

 overhangs the premaxillaries, the nasal meatus, and the greater part of 

 the apex of the nasal bones. The latter is short and with a wide base, 

 and resembles two lateral cones flattened together, their extremities 

 obli(piely truncate outward and excavated. The coujposition of the 

 upper surface of the cranium is somewhat ditficult to determine, owing 

 to the injured state of the posterior part. If we regard the bone which 

 bounds the lachrymal behind and above, as frontal, as I did in originally 

 describing the species, it gives an extruordinaty extent to the nasals, 

 for the common suture of these bones extends V-shaped backward, to a 

 l)oint op[)Osite to the middle of the zygomatic arches. It gives to the 

 nasals an extent equal to that of the frontals and parietals combined. 

 They not only su})port the anterior lobes, but form the inner half of 

 the median horn cores, rising as high as the tuberosity above described. 

 To regard these bones as frontals would involve the improbable pecu- 

 liarity of their extending beyond the iiareal oritices, and the terminal 

 cone of the nasals is not separated from them by suture, but by a groove 

 Quly. The question is decided in favor of their being nasals, by those 

 bones as preserved in Uohasileus ])rc'ssicorms, Coi)e, where the lobe is 

 reitresented by a tubercle only on the side of a continuous nasal. The 

 immense length of the snout in Loxolophodon looks as though the nasal 

 bones had extended themselves forward, so as to ossiiy the basal por- 

 tions of an elephantine i»roboscis. 



The trontals descend behind the horns, with a very obtuse or rounded 

 <'outinuation, to the inner side of the fossa, and vrithout any superciliary 

 margin. They form with the posterior part of the imsals a shallow me- 

 dian basin. The suture with the ])aric'tals is very indistinct, but if I 

 have truly discovered it, it forms another i)osteriorly directed chevron, 

 and leaves but a narrow superciliary portion af the frontals. xibove the 



