270 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIII, 



alterations were made in the restored parts of the skull of Patrio- 

 felis, the teeth were restored, one dorsal vertebra added, and, for 

 reasons stated below, the feet reset in an angulate subdigitigrade 

 instead of a plane plantigrade fashion. A more thorough study 

 of the dentition of this animal was also made from all the mate- 

 rials in the Museum. 



In this connection a careful restudy of all the evidence led the 

 writer to the opposite conclusion, that these were powerful terres- 

 trial, or partly arboreal, animals, analogous to the Cats in habits of 

 feeding, with analogous (not homologous) sectorials, clumsy in 

 limb structure, without prehensile claws, and presenting no evi- 

 dence of successors among the modern Carnivora. The reason- 

 ing upon which this conclusion is based is, in brief, that the 

 alleged points of resemblance to the Pinnipedia are in part per- 

 sistent primitive characters due to the descent of the Oxygenidse 

 and Pinnipedia from a common Insectivore-Creodont ancestor, 

 in part homoplastic adaptive characters due to similar habits or 

 uses of certain parts of the body, while the main trend of adapta- 

 tion is divergent from the Pinnipedia as seen both in the teeth 

 and feet, and from all other modern Carnivora, especially as seen 

 in the teeth. 



In this paper the principal osteological and dental characters 

 will be briefly restated with a number of corrections and addi- 

 tions, referring the reader back to Wortman's fuller papers for 

 details. 



I. Evidence for Terrestrial Habits. 

 I. The Feet. 



It was claimed (Wortman, '94, p. 161) that the plantigrade feet 

 with spreading toes indicated a webbed ('94, p. 146) or swimming 

 foot. It will be observed by comparison of the photographs- 

 (Figs. I, 2) that the feet of Fatriofelis are no more widely 

 spread than those of the terrestrial and arboreal Didelphys. 

 Moreover, the planes of the articular facets of the metapodials 

 and phalanges in Fatriofelis entirely forbid the supposition that 

 this animal was plantigrade. 



The writer has pointed out ('00, p. 91) that the angulation of 

 the limbs in Ungulates is expressed in the angles which the prox- 



