1X PHENACODUS AND ‘THE CREODONTS 203 
the details of its osteology. It was not a large creature (see 
Fig. 110, p. 196), about 6 feet in length, with a small head. 
The feet were more or less plantigrade, and five-toed. The last 
phalanges of the toes show that they carried hoofs and not 
claws; yet the fore-feet look a little as if they could be used as 
grasping organs. The third digit of both hind- and fore-feet 
exceeds the others, and thus a Perissodactyle-like foot characterised 
this Kocene creature. The tail is exceedingly long, and must 
have reached the ground as the animal walked. This is of course 
by no means an Ungulate character. Still, in the totality of its 
organisation the animal was decidedly Ungulate, though Professor 
Cope spoke of Phenacodus as not merely an ancestral Ungulate 
but as the parent form of Insectivores, Carnivores, Lemurs, Monkeys, 
and Man himself! The scapula indeed is from its breadth and oval 
contour rather like that of a Carnivore. The clavicles as in other 
Ungulates are absent. The femur is Perissodactyle rather than 
Artiodactyle in the presence of a third trochanter. The creature 
had fifteen pairs of ribs and five or six lumbar vertebrae. The 
two bones of the leg which le below the femur are perfectly 
distinct and separate. A cast of the brain-case shows that the 
cerebral hemispheres were smooth and small, the cerebellum of 
course completely uncovered and nearly as large as the cerebrum. 
The olfactory lobes were also large. The complete skeleton of 
Phenacodus has lately been excavated more fully from the 
enveloping matrix by Professor Osborn,’ and mounted in what 
is regarded as the natural position of the beast. It appears 
that though five-toed it went upon the three middle toes only, 
and furthermore that of these the middle one was the more 
prevailing, so that Phenacodus was distinctly “ Perissodactyle,” 
at least in habit. Moreover its “long hind-quarters, the long 
powerful tail . . . are reminiscent of Creodont ancestry.” The 
genus was Kuropean and American in range. 
Meniscotherium (= Hyracops”) comprises several forms of 
about the size of a fox; they are both European and American in 
range. The teeth are more distinctly Ungulate in form than those 
of Phenacodus, with a W-shaped outer wall. The skull is 
described as possessing “ indifferent, primitive characters,” permit- 
ting a comparison with those of Opossums, Insectivores, and 
1 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. x. 1898, p. 159. 
2 Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xliii. 1892, p-. 447. 
