THE FOSSA. 



185 



of such a nature that if the lower jaw were 

 found by itself, and without its deciduous 

 premolar, it would be included without 

 further consideration in a fossil genus be- 

 longing to the Upper Eocene, which has 

 long been known to palaeontologists under 

 the name of Pseudselurus. The formula of 

 the two genera is certainly different. Pseu- 



dselurus has only 32 teeth, while the fossa 

 has 36. But there are only slight differences 

 in the forms of the teeth. The fossil species 

 have also been called "four-toothed cats," 

 for all the other felines have only three 

 molars in the lower jaw. The fossa would 

 accordingly be a five-toothed cat. 



But here end the characters which the 



Fig. 88. The Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox). 



fossa has in common with the other felines, 

 and with them alone. With respect to its 

 other characters the fossa is allied partly to 

 the felines, partly to the Viverrida, or to the 

 latter alone. 



The claws are retractile, as in the felines 

 and in many Viverrida. The fossa is mani- 

 festly plantigrade like certain Viverrida. The 

 body is very long, the legs short, the ears 

 small; the pupil is slit-like. All these char- 

 acters, to which we must add the longish 

 form of the skull with a well -developed 

 sagittal crest, and the long jaws, are more 

 like what we find in the civet-cats; and this 

 relationship is further indicated by the naked 

 soles and by the presence of a pair of scent- 

 glands in the neighbourhood of the anus, 



diffusing a very unpleasant odour. Such 

 glands, always developed in the civet-cats, 

 are wanting in the felines. 



We may thus describe the fossa as a civet- 

 cat with a Tertiary feline dentition. It forms 

 a connecting link between two families, which 

 at the present day are strictly separate. 



The fur is of a uniform reddish-yellow, 

 inclining to brown on the back; the hair is 

 smooth, closely pressed to the body, and 



coarse. 



Since the fossa is the only beast of prey 

 of considerable size in Madagascar (the few 

 civet-cats which are found there attain only 

 the length of the ermine, while the fossa 

 measures about 2 feet 8 inches in length, not 

 including the tail of ^.bout 2 feet 4 inches 



