EXTINCT DOGS. 575 



complement of these organs. Thus, while in the lower jaw this animal has 

 invariably four molar teeth, or one more than in any other member of the family, 

 in the upper jaw it has either three or four of these teeth, whereas in all other 

 living canine animals there are not more than two upper molars. The total 

 number of teeth is accordingly either forty-six or forty -eight ; and no other Mammal 

 outside the Marsupial order ever has four molar teeth in both jaws. Indeed, the 

 tenrec is the only one in which there are four of these teeth even in one jaw. 

 Lalande's dog is, therefore, a very interesting animal, and one which retains, perhaps, 

 traces of a Marsupial ancestry lost in other living Mammals, except the tenrec. 

 This species, which is rather smaller than a common fox, comes nearest in external 

 appearance to the f ennecs, having enormous ears and a thick bushy tail. The eyes 

 are unusually large ; the limbs are relatively longer than in the fox, but the tail is 

 proportionately shorter. The general colour of the fur is brownish or iron grey, 

 mottled with yellow ; the outer sides of the limbs being nearly black, the under- 

 parts whitish, and the tail slaty grey, with a black tip, and more or less distinct 

 dark markings on its upper-surface. These animals are natives of South and East 

 Africa ; but very little is known of their habits. They are generally found in open 

 country, dwelling under or among small bushes, and going about in pairs. Although 

 they are said to stand and watch the hunters by the hour together, they are very 

 difficult of approach. 



EXTINCT DOGS. 



It has been mentioned that fossil remains of several living members of the 

 dog family have been obtained from the superficial deposits of the countries which 

 they severally inhabit. It has also been mentioned that extinct species of the 

 Asiatic wild dogs and of the African hunting-dog have been found in Europe, thus- 

 indicating for those two groups a former distribution of wider extent than at 

 present. A number of extinct species belonging to the genus Canis have also been 

 obtained from the Pliocene and upper-half of the Miocene deposits of different 

 parts of the world. These, however, are all more or less closely allied to living 

 species, and are accordingly of no very special interest to the evolutionist. 



On the other hand, if we go somewhat further back in the geological record, 

 to the lower portion of the Miocene and the upper part of the Eocene period, we 

 come across remains of more or less decidedly dog-like animals widely different 

 from living forms. Some of these extinct creatures are, indeed, to a considerable 

 extent, intermediate between dogs and civets ; and thus indicate that the civet 

 family is probably derived from the ancestors of the dog family. This enlarges 

 our view of the relationships of the various modern Carnivores to one another, for 

 we have already shown that the hyenas are closely related to the ancestral civets, 

 and the cats are probably another side-branch nearly allied to them. We thus 

 have reason to believe that all the Carnivores with bladder-like tympanic bullse to 

 their skulls namely, cats, civets, hyaenas, and dogs have sprung from a common 

 ancestral stock nearly allied to the modern dogs. The most civet-like of these 

 intermediate extinct animals are known by the name of Cynodictis, and they were 

 mostly creatures of about the size of the fox, with teeth either numerically the 

 same as in the latter, or as in the civet, and with plantigrade feet. 



