FOSSIL OTARIES. 219 



accepted as satisfactory proof of the presence of Otaries in the 

 Tertiary fauna of Europe. 



Van Beneden also refers to a humerns of an Otary in the Mu- 

 seum of the Geological Institute of Vienna, supposed to have 

 been taken from the bed of the Danube, and adds that it bears 

 a close resemblance to the same part in Otaria jubata, if indeed 

 it is not referable to that species, but adds: "Get os, en 

 tout cas, n'est pas fossile." He also refers to a skull found by 

 Valenciennes on the shore in the department of Lande, men- 

 tioned by Gervais,* and says it is still unknown how it came to 

 be found on the coast. 



Van Beneden, however, believes that he has proof of the ex- 

 istence of fossil Otaries in Europe in his Mesotaria ambigua^ a 

 species presenting many remarkable characters, which ally it, 

 he believes, in some points, to the Otaries. This species is rep- 

 resented by the greater part of the bones of the skeleton and 

 numerous teeth, but the skull is not known.J The teeth, he 

 says, are unlike those of any other genus, while the bones indi- 

 cate a special mode of life, and a size about equal to or rather 

 larger than that of Phoca grcenlandica. The ilium is described 

 as resembling more the same part in the Otaries than the Seals, 

 and as indicating a mode of life more terrestrial than aquatic. 

 The Imnierus, on the other hand, is stated to more resemble 

 that of the Seals than that of the Otaries. 



Of the femur he says : " Nous avons trois femurs assez comple'ts 

 qui indiquent que cet os s'eloigne par sa conformation des autres 

 Amphiteriens. La tete, ainsi que le col, tiennent de POtarie, 

 coinme les condyles, et le grand trochanter, pen large, ne s'eleve 

 pas au-dessus de la tete de Pos. La tete est eomparativement 

 petite. La cavite trochanterique est profonde et etroite vers le 

 milieu de Pos et tout contre le col. Le caractere se rapporte a la 

 position du membre post<rieur qui rapproche ainsi des Otaries 

 Panimal qui nous occupe. Les Msotaries e"taient moins aqua- 

 tiques que les Phoques actuels." 



Upon careful comparison of his excellent figures (pi. ix) of 

 the femur, humerus, scapula, and fragment of pelvis, with the 



* Zoologie et la Pale"ontologie francaises, p. 276. 



tAmi. du Mus. Roy. d'Hist. Nat. de Belgique, i, 1877, p. 56, pi. i. 



tVan Beneden reports having two canines, three molars, seven cervical 

 vertebrae and an axis, six dorsal and seven lumbar vertebne, a right ilium and 

 a left ischium, the distal end of a scapula, four right and five left hunieri, a 

 left and a right femur, six tibire, and four metatarsal bones. 



$ The parts of the skeleton figured by Van Beueden correspond very nearly 

 in size with the corresponding parts of Ci/fitopliora eristata. 



