220 MEMOIRS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



In 1884 E. D. Cope and J. L. Wortman, in describing the post-Pliocene verte- 

 brates of Indiana, 5 reviewed Leidy's description, and after careful considera- 

 tion of the measurements of the type specimen concluded that it would be 

 impossible to admit this fossil to the rank of a distinct and well-defined species, 

 but it appeared, in their judgment, to be but a variety which has a representative 

 in the mountains of Oregon today. 



In 1895 Cope, 6 in describing a specimen representing a large fossil wolf 

 from Texas, referred to Leidy's type specimen as representing a distinct species, 

 Canis indianensis. 



Previous to the discovery of Canis dirus at Rancho La Brea, excepting the 

 type specimen, the only materials described which had been referred to this 

 form consisted of two specimens from California and one from Texas. Several 

 limb bones described from the lead region of the Upper Mississippi by Allen 7 

 represent a form evidently nearer to C. dims than to any other American 

 species, and not separated from it by any characters mentioned in the original 

 description. 



The California specimens first referred to C. indianensis consisted of a lower 

 jaw which Dr. Lorenzo Yates obtained from a Quaternary deposit in Livermore 

 Valley. The Yates specimen (see fig. 25) was tentatively referred by Leidy 8 

 to this species. 



In 1903 a fragment of a lower jaw with the canine, the sectorial, and the 

 last premolar, obtained from an asphalt deposit in Tulare County, California, 

 was referred by Merriam 9 to C. indianensis. 



A fragment of a lower jaw referred to C. indianensis in Sinclair's report on 

 Potter Creek Cave, 10 on a determination by Merriam, possibly represents a 

 timber wolf or another large wolf closely related to this species. 11 



The Texas specimen referred to C. indianensis consisted of portions of 

 an upper dentition, including M 1 , P 3 , the canine, and an incisor. It was obtained 

 in the Equus horizon of the Tule Canon, on Staked Plains of Texas by W. F. 

 Cummins. Cope, 12 to whom the specimen was submitted, pointed out some differ- 

 ences between the teeth of this animal and those of Leidy's type, but was 

 inclined to regard it as an individual of the same species. 



So far as is known to the writer, the first mention of the occurrence of Canis 

 dirus in the deposits of Rancho La Brea appears in the preliminary description 

 of this locality by Merriam 13 in 1906. 



"Cope, E. D., and Wortman, J. L., Indiana Geol. and Nat. Hist., 14th Ann. Rep., part 2, p. 9, 1884. 



Cope, E. D., Jour. Acad. Sc. Philad., ser. 2, vol. 9, p. 453, 1895. 



i Allen, J. A., Am. Jour. Sc., ser. 3, vol. 11, p. 49, 1876. 



s Leidy, J., Proe. Aead. Sc. Philad., p. 260, 1873; and Geol. Surv. of Terrs., vol. 1, Foss. Verts., p. 230, 1873. 



Merriam, J. C., Univ. Calif. Publ. Bull. Dept. Geol., vol. 3, p. 288, 1903. 



10 Sinclair, W. J., Univ. Calif. Publ. Amer. Areh. Ethn., vol. 2, p. 17, 1904. 



11 See page 245 of this paper. 



12 Cope, E. D., Jour. Acad. Sc. Philad., ser. 2, vol. 9, p. 454, 1895. 

 is Merriam, J. C., Science, n.s., vol. 24, pp. 248-250, Aug., 1906. 



