220 FAMILY OTARIID^, 



OiTespondiug parts of the skeleton in five species of Otaries, 

 reiiresenting all the genera of that group, and with the princi- 

 pal types of the Phocids, I fail to appreciate any imx)ortant ap- 

 proach toward the former, or any marked departure from the 

 latter, esi)ecially the subfamily Cystoplwrinw. In the femur, for 

 examj)le, there is in Mesotaria no trace of a trochanter minor ^ 

 which is always strongly developed in the Otaries, as well as 

 m the Wah'uses, but absent in the Phocids, this feature alone 

 serving to at once distinguish the Gressigrade from the Repti- 

 grade Pinnipeds. The thick short form of the femur in Mes- 

 otaria^ with its greatly enlarged distal extremity, and the great 

 transverse breadth and thickness of the whole bone in propor- 

 tion to its length, gives it a very close resemblance in its gen- 

 eral form and proportions to the same part in Cystophora and 

 Macrorhinus {Morunga of many authors), while it places it in 

 strong contrast with the same bone in any of the Otariids. 

 The scapula is also a very characteristic bone among the Pin- 

 nipeds, and even the small portion (the lower extremity) shown 

 in Van Beneden's figure (pi. ix, fig. 7) serves to emphasize and 

 confirm the relationship of Mesotaria with the Phocids, and the 

 wide divergence of this type from the Otariids, as shown espe- 

 cially in the obliquity of the articular surface of the glenoid 

 cavity. The portion of the pelvis figured (pi. ix, fig. 8) is de- 

 cidedly Phocine in its proportions, and in the divergence of the 

 iliac crest, while it is very unlike the same part in the Otariids. 

 Finally, it may be noted that the tout ensemble of all the bones 

 of Jlesotaria represented in Van Beneden's plate is strikingly 

 that met with in the heavier types of Phocids, especially the 

 genera Cystophora and Macrorhinus^ and very unlike that of the 

 Otaries. In all the latter, the bones are relativelj" small, dense, 

 and slender, and especially is this the case with the bones of 

 the limbs, none of them apiiroaching the thick stout form char- 

 acterizing these parts in Mesotaria. The proi)ortions, to say noth- 

 ing of details of structure in the principal bones in the Otaries, 

 are so widely different from what is met with in the Phocids, that 

 general contour alone serves at once as a basis for their dis- 

 crimination. 



In view of the foregoing, it seems to me evident that if the 

 distribution of the Otariidcc formerly embraced the shores of 

 Europe, we have still to wait for evidence of such a former dis- 

 tribution ; and that in Europe, as on the Atlantic seaboard of 

 !N"orth America, the only fossil remains of Pinnipeds thus far 



