XVII NESOPITHECUS, AN INTERMEDIATE FORM 553 
which have been considered; for it has the typical Eutherian 
dentition of four premolars and three molars. These teeth, 
especially the superior molars, are particularly compared tothe 
corresponding teeth of Lemur and Galago. Of this and the 
allied genus, Protochriacus, several species are known. 
Adapis, a representative of another family, is one of the best 
known of ancient Lemuroids. It has the typical mammalian 
dentition of forty-four teeth in a close series without diastemata. 
The orbits are completely separated from the temporal cavity, 
the eyes looking forwards. The canines are large and caniniform. 
The skull is deeply ridged behind with the usual sagittal crest. 
This genus is European, and corresponds to the already mentioned 
American “Eocene Tomitherium, perhaps belonging to the same 
family. 
Nesopithecus is an extinct genus from Madagascar, lately de- 
scribed by Dr. Forsyth Major.’ There are two species, V. roberti 
and WV. australis. The dental formula is I 2,C 1, Pm 3, M3, for 
the upper jaw, the lower jaw having but a single pair of incisors. 
The lachrymal foramen is just inside, or on the edge, of the orbit, 
so that one distinctive Lemurine character is lost. The genus is 
also Ape-like in the form of the canines and incisors, these 
having been especially compared by Dr. Forsyth Major with 
those of the Cercopithecidae. The molars, too, agree with those 
of the same family. There is, however, one important feature in 
which Nesopithecus resembles not only the Lemurs as opposed to 
the Apes, but the Malagasy Lemurs. As already mentioned (p. 544), 
Dr. Major has shown that in the Malagasy Lemurs, even including 
the aberrant Chiromys, and in the Tertiary and European Adapis, 
the bulla tympani is not produced by an ossified extension of the 
annulus tympanicus, but from the adjacent periotic bone, the 
annulus remaining separate and lying within the fully-formed 
bulla. This feature shows conclusively that Adapis is a Lemur, 
and that Nesopithecus, originally supposed to be a Monkey, cannot 
be removed from the Lemuroidea, many though its lkenesses to 
the higher Primates undoubtedly are. However, this feature, 
combined with the fact that the orbital and temporal cavities are 
in communication, shows the Lemuroid position of Vesopithecus, 
though it is quite conceivable that it is on the way to become 
an Ape. 
1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1899, p. -987. 
