324 Proi. W. H. Flower on Extinct Lemurina. • 



large group, now almost extinct, through which the higher 

 Primates, including man, must have passed in the progress of 

 their development, make the consideration of their ancient 

 history one of great interest. 



Until very recently fossil Lemurs were quite unknown ; at 

 all events the affinities of certain remains provisionally assigned 

 to the group were much questioned ; but within the last few 

 years the existence of Lemuroid animals in Europe during the 

 later Eocene and early Miocene periods has been perfectly 

 established, and remains of a large number of animals attri- 

 buted, though with less certainty, to the group have been found 

 in beds of corresponding age in North America. 



In 1862 Riitimeyer described the fragment of a right 

 maxilla and three molars from a siderolitic deposit (Bohnerz) 

 at Egerkingen, near Soleure, Switzerland, under the name of 

 Ccenopithecus lemuroides, supposing them to belong to an 

 animal partaking the characters of the American Monkeys and 

 the Lemurs. These remains have, however, by most other 

 palaeontologists, been referred to an Ungulate. 



More recently M. B^tille discovered, in deposits which are 

 being worked for phosphate of lime at Sainte Ndboule de 

 Beduer, Department of Lot, France, attributed to early Miocene 

 age, the nearly complete cranium, and subsequently, at the 

 same place, a portion of a ramus of a mandible of apparently 

 the same species of animal. These were described by 

 M. Delfortrie, in the ' Actes de la Society Linneenne de 

 Bordeaux,' t. xxix. 1® liv. 1872 *, under the name of ^^Palceo- 

 lemur Betillei]^'' and through the kindness of M. Delfortrie 

 and Professor Gervais, of Paris, excellent casts of both are 

 in the Museum of the B,oyal College of Surgeons. The cra- 

 nium is generally well preserved; but unfortunately the 

 anterior part, containing the incisor and canine teeth, has 

 been broken off. The crowns of the premolars also are de- 

 stroyed ; but their number and characters are indicated by their 

 roots, and the molars are complete on both sides. The affinity 

 to the Lemurine animals, and especially to the African forms, 

 the Nycticebince and Galagince^ is chiefly shown by the general 

 form of the cranium, the large size and anterior direction of 

 the orbits, the small and narrow muzzle, and the position of 

 the lachrymal foramen outside the anterior edge of the orbit. 

 In size the fossil is intermediate between the Potto [Perodicticus 

 potto) and Galago crassicaudatus. The whole skull, however, 

 is more depressed, the orbits are smaller, the brain-cavity rela- 

 tively smaller and more constricted behind the orbits, and the 



* See also ' Journal de Zoologie,' tome ii. p. 415. 



