EXTINCT DOGS 



581 



Far more remarkable is, however, the connection which is shown to exist by 

 these fossil types between the dogs and the bears, which are now so widely sundered. 

 The connecting type appears to be a creature known as the Amphicyon, of which a 

 lower flesh-tooth is shown on p. 356. Some of these Amphicyons were not larger 

 than a fox, while others must have fully equaled a bear in size. They differed from 

 modern dogs in having forty-four teeth, owing to the presence of the third pair of 

 molars in the upper jaw, and also in that their feet were plantigrade, like those of a 

 bear ; while they had five toes on all feet. The teeth of these plantigrade dogs, as 

 they may be called, were, indeed, essentially those of a modern dog ; but, as we 

 shall show later on, there is a complete transition through other extinct forms to 

 those of the bears. Hence, we conclude that these plantigrade dogs were not only 

 the ancestors of the modern dogs, but likewise gave origin to the Bear family. The 

 Dog family is, therefore, the most ancient type of Carnivores now living, and the one 

 which includes the extinct forms from which nearly all the others have originated. 



FOXHOUND. 



