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NATURE 



{May 1 6, 1889 



posterior limbs, and the shoulder-blades thrown up from 

 their proper position some distance above the line of the 

 vertebral column. The skull is almost entire, and although 

 the scapulas are imperfect, and the right pectoral, limb 

 has sustained some losses, all the bones of the skeleton are 

 in their original juxtaposition, so that we may note the 

 arrangement of the bones of the carpus or tarsus almost 

 as well as in the skeleton of a recent type. It strikes us, 

 indeed, that it would have been quite easy to have ex- 

 tracted the skull and many of the bones of the limbs 

 from the matrix, and made entire casts from them, which 

 could have been placed in cavities in the cast from the 

 original slab. 



The chief importance of this and other American 

 specimens of fossil Mammals belonging to totally extinct 

 types is their completeness, whereby we are enabled at 

 once to gain a very fair idea of the affinities of the anirnals 

 to which they belonged. In Europe, with the exception 

 of the well-known Mammals of the Upper Eocene (or 

 Lower Oligocene) of the Paris basin, our efforts are 

 nearly always hampered by the imperfect nature of our 

 specimens — as witness the question whether the limb- 

 bones from Hordwell described, by Kowalewsky are or 

 are not referable to the Dichodon of Owen, which was 

 founded upon the evidence of .the skull — so that we can 

 very rarely speak confidently and fully as to the affinities 

 of any particular form. It may, indeed, be stated, without 

 any fear of contradiction, that we could never have hoped 

 to have attained anything like our present knowledge as 

 to the mutual affinities of the various sub-orders (or 

 orders) of Ungulate Mammals and their relations to 

 other groups, had it not been for the fortunate dis- 

 coveries of such a host of well-preserved specimens in 

 the Tertiaries of the United States. And we may here 

 express the obligations which all European students are 

 under to those palaeontologists who, like Messrs. Cope, 

 Leidy, Marsh, Osborn, Scott, and others, have laboured 

 so indefatigably to collect and describe the Vertebrate 

 faunas of past epochs in the so-called New World. In 

 expressing thus briefly our obligations to these eminent 

 exponents of the life-history of a former world, we must, 

 however, not omit also to mention the enlightened 

 liberality of the Government and of various learned 

 Societies in the States, which have furnished the funds 

 necessary to render these treasures available to the world, 

 through the means of the magnificent publications in 

 which they are described. 



In concluding this brief notice of the new treasure re- 

 cently aquired by our National Museum, we may say a 

 few words regarding some of the chief characters of the 

 Condylarthrous Ungulates. One of their most essential 

 features is the comparatively simple arrangement of the 

 bones of the wrist and ankle joints (carpus and tarsus) ; 

 the various rows preserving their original distinction, and 

 having only very slight mutual interlocking. In this 

 respect, this group agrees with the existing Hyracoidea so 

 closely that Prof Cope has considered himself justified in 

 brigading the two groups together under the common 

 title of Taxeopoda. Usually ihe dentition comprises the 

 full number of teeth found in those higher, or placental, 

 Mammals in which the teeth are differentiated into 

 groups ; and very generally the cheek-teeth have their 

 crowns formed on what is known as the bunodont type. 

 That is to say, their crowns are low, and carry three or 

 more low and blunt tubercles, as exemplified in the pig 

 and in man. Further, the eye or canine teeth are well 

 developed, and recall those of the Carnivora. Again, the 

 humerus, or bone of the upper arm, has a foramen at its 

 lower extremity, which is totally unknown in all other 

 Ungulates, and likewise recalls the Carnivora and some 

 of the lower orders. The digits are nearly always five in 

 number, and their terminal joints are so pointed as fre- 

 quently to render it difficult to say whether their coverings 

 should be termed nails or hoofs. The femur, or leg-bone. 



has a third trochanter, like that of existing Perissodactylate 

 Ungulates ; and the ankle-bone, or astragalus, has its 

 lower articular surface uniformly convex, instead of flat- 

 tened or facetted as in all modern Ungulates. The astraga- 

 lus and the wrist joint are, indeed, very similar to the same 

 parts in the generalized Carnivora of the Eocene. The tail 

 was larger and heavier than in any existing Ungulate, and 

 was thus more like that of many Carnivora, such as the 

 wolf In walking, it appears that the three middle toes 

 of each foot touched the ground, whilst the first and fifth 

 toes stuck out on the sides and behind, after the fashion 

 obtaining with the second and fifth toes of the pigs. 



The curious approximation made in the osteology of 

 this remarkable type of Mammal to the generalized Carni- 

 vora of the Eocene, to which Prof Cope has applied the 

 name of Creodonta, is so marked that Dr. Max Schlosser, 

 of Munich, considers that we are now justified in regard- 

 ing the Ungulates and the Carnivores as divergent 

 branches of a single primitive stock. Phenacodiis is- 

 regarded, moreover, by Prof Cope, as the ancestral type 

 from which a number of the more specialized Ungulates 

 have been derived ; and there appears every probability 

 that this genus should be placed as one of the earlier 

 links in the chain which culminates in the modern horse. 



Recently, however, the American Professor has 

 proposed to include in the Taxeopoda not only the 

 Hyracoidea and Condylarthra (which it was originally 

 formed to receive), but also the Primates of English 

 zoologists, which it is proposed to divide into the Dauben- 

 toidea, represented by the existing aye-aye {C/iironiys) 

 and the t.x\.mct Mtxodectes ; the Ouadrumana, embracing 

 the other lemurs and monkeys ; and the Anthropo- 

 morpha, which is taken to include the man-like apes and 

 man. A complex genealogical tree is given, in which the 

 Phc7tacodo7itidce are represented as not only the pro- 

 genitors of the other Ungulates, but also as giving origin 

 on the one hand to the so-called Daubentoidea, and on 

 the other to the Quadrumana, from which the Anthropo- 

 morpha are derived as a secondary branch from the 

 Eocene Lemuroid Aticiptoinorphido' , which group is itself 

 derived from the Adapidce, as represented by the well- 

 known Adapts of the Upper Eocene cf Europe. 



Now, with all dua respect to Prof. Cope, we venture to 

 say that no English zoologist will be inclined to accept 

 a classification which includes in a single " order " such 

 widely different forms as man and the hyrax, while the 

 other Ungulates are apparently regarded as constituting a 

 totally distinct order. Again, in regard to the genea- 

 logical tree it appears to us to be incomprehensible how 

 an order like the Primates, all the members of which are 

 furnished with fully-developed clavicles, can have takers 

 origin from an Ungulate type like Phenacodiis, in which 

 it appears that those bones are totally wanting. While^ 

 therefore, fully recognizing the great interest of Phena- 

 codiis as an ancestral type, we totally fail to see how 

 it can also be regarded as the " ancestor of lemurs and 

 of man." R. L. 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 



^pHE twentieth session of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 -*- was opened on Wednesday, May 8, when the President^ 

 Sir James Kitson, gave his inaugural address, which was 

 of a technical character, and was devoted mainly to the 

 consideration of the best Yorkshire iron as an industrial 

 product ; but the subject of iron alloys, to which we shall 

 refer again, the extending application of iron and steel for 

 railways and ships, and other matters of interest, such 

 as technical education and the revival of trade, were also- 

 referred to. 



The first paper read was one on the alloys of nickel and 

 steel, by Mr. James Riley. This led to a very lengthy and 

 interesting discussion, from which it appeared, as has 



