5o6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



apes, it was no longer possible to separate the Primates into 

 the suborders Lemuroidea and Anthropoidea. The full text of 

 this communication was not published at the time when the 

 present article was written. 



Practically nothing has been accomplished during the year 

 to add to our scant knowledge of the past history of bats. It 

 is true that Mr. G. E. Mason, in the September issue of The 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History^ described the remains 

 of a supposed new fruit-bat from Round Island, near Mauritius. 

 These remains occur in a guano-deposit, and appear to be very 

 recent; and in a note on Mr. Mason's communication published 

 in the October number of the same journal. Dr. Knud Andersen 

 pointed out that they appear to be inseparable from the existing 

 Ptcropiis rodriccnsis. 



On the other hand, some very important evidence has been 

 obtained with regard to the palaeontology and past distribution 

 of one group of Insectivora. The golden moles (Chrysochloridae) 

 form at the present day a group entirely confined to Southern 

 and South-Eastern Africa, whose nearest relatives are apparently 

 the tenrecs of Madagascar. An extinct Patagonian insectivorous 

 mammal (Necrolestes) has, however, been regarded as a member 

 of the same group ; and, more recently. Dr. W. D. Matthew 

 {Science, December 14, 1906, and Bull. Amcr. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. xxiii. art. 9, 1907) has announced the discovery in the 

 Miocene strata of South Dakota of the remains of what he 

 regards as an undoubted golden mole, although referable to 

 an extinct genus {Arctoryctcs). The author also considers that 

 the North American Tertiary genus Xenotherium, previously 

 regarded provisionally as a monotreme, is a member of the 

 same group. If the identifications be trustworthy, the discovery 

 is of much interest from the standpoint of geographical distribu- 

 tion. Although its bearings cannot be fully discussed here, it 

 refutes the idea that the Patagonian Necrolestes affords any 

 evidence in favour of a former Antarctic land-connection between 

 Africa and South America. 



In the paper on the Lower Miocene fauna of South Dakota 

 referred to above. Dr. Matthew, in addition to describing certain 

 new species, discusses the relationship of the Tertiary Canidae 

 to their existing representatives. In his opinion the Old World 

 Cyon and probably the South American Spcothos {Icticyon) 

 are derived from Temnocyon of the John Day Tertiar3^ ; the 



