i 9 4 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. 



ing most unmistakable evidence of its relationship to 

 the dogs in the structure of its teeth ; and we may 

 thus be justified in assuming that this terrible animal 

 was largely carnivorous in its habits. Closely akin 

 to this hyaena-bear is another huge extinct animal 

 from the uppermost Tertiary of South America, in 

 which it is said that the bone of the arm retains 

 the perforation now found in the cats, and thus 

 gives us one . more clue to the descent of the bear. 

 In this creature, which is known as the Arctothere, the 





FIG. 59. The left half of the upper jaw of an extinct South American Hear-like 

 animal. Much reduced. 



grinding teeth of the upper jaw (Fig. 59) have quite 

 lost the elongated crowns found in the true bears ; and 

 the " flesh-tooth " (the third from the right side of the 

 figure) approximates very strongly to that of the dogs. 

 Taking one more step back in time to the middle 

 division, or moycn age of the Tertiary period, technically 

 known as the Miocene epoch, we meet with a creature 

 which unfortunately has no English name, and which 

 we must therefore be content to recognise under the 

 designation of the Dinocyon. This animal was of the 



