512 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Smithsonian Institution, is devoted to an imperfect skull 

 obtained in 1847 from the Eocene marl of the Ashley River, 

 South Carolina. In the year of its discover}^ appeared a 

 brief account of the specimen by Mr. M, Tuomey, who referred 

 it to Zeiiglodon ; and two years later it was named Z. pygmceiis 

 by Prof. J. Miiller. The specimen afterwards came under the 

 notice of Prof. L. Agassiz, who caused a plate to be prepared, 

 with the lettering Phocodon holmcsi; but for some reason this 

 plate was never issued, and in 1895 Prof. E. D. Cope referred 

 the specimen to a new genus, under the name of Agorophius 

 pjgiJKvus. Despite the fact that when first figured the specimen 

 had a single Sqiialodojt-like tooth in the maxilla, a suggestion 

 was made that the species might be an ancestral rorqual. 

 In Mr. True's opinion, Agorophius is, however, a squalodont, 

 diff"ering in cranial characters from Squalodon itself. The 

 European Squalodon chrUchii has a broad rostrum recalling 

 the Carolina genus, and ma}^ be a connecting link between 

 Squalodon and Agorophius. The t3'pe specimen of another 

 American Tertiary cetacean — Anoplouassa forcipata — has also 

 been redescribed b}' Mr. True {Bull. Mus. Zool. Harvard Coll.^ 

 vol. li. p. 97), who regards it as representing a member of the 

 Ph3^seteridae allied to the modern Mesoplodon. The rarity 

 of cetacean remains in the Eocene clay of Barton, Hampshire, 

 fully justifies Dr. C. W. Andreas in describing {Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc, vol. Ixiii. p. 124) a vertebra of Zeuglodon li'anklyni; 

 this being the third known specimen of that species. Of the 

 two earlier ones, the second was incorrectly referred to a 

 rorqual, under the name of Balceonoptera juddi. Of greater 

 importance is a memoir by Dr. O. Abel, published in the 

 Dcnkscliriftcn of the Vienna Academy (vol. Ixxxvi.), on the 

 rudimentar}^ pelvis of cetaceans. At the conclusion of this 

 memoir the author points out that the development of a caudal 

 fin in cetaceans and sirenians has rendered a functional pelvis 

 superfluous in both groups. Among cetaceans and dugongs 

 the reduction has followed parallel lines, culminating in a 

 retention of portions of the ilium and ischium. On the other 

 hand, the manatis have followed a line of their own, and have 

 retained only the ischium. 



The onl}^ important work on fossil marsupials which has 

 come under the writer's notice is an attempt b}^ Dr. E. C. 

 Stirling {Nature, vol. Ixxvi. p. 543) to restore the external 



