QUADRUMANA. 9 



" I am at length enabled to solve the important question 

 as to the existence of the highest order of Mammalia 

 (Quadrumana,) in those ancient times to which these fossils 

 belong ; a question which has, as yet, been unanswered, or 

 to which most philosophers have replied in the negative. 

 It is certain that this order was then in existence ; and the 

 first animal of the class recovered is of gigantic size ; a 

 character belonging to the organization of the period. It 

 considerably exceeds the largest individuals of the Orang 

 Outang or Chimpanzee yet seen ; from which, also, as 

 well as from the Gibbons, or long-armed apes (Hylobates), 

 it is generically distinct. As it also differs from the exist- 

 ing Monkeys of this continent (South America), I would 

 place it for the present in a genus of its own, for which I 

 propose the name of Protopithecus." 



In letters communicated to the Academy of Sciences, 

 Dr. Lund states that the large fossil Brazilian Monkey 

 belongs to the Platyrrhine or New World group of Qua- 

 drumana, all the species of which have three premolars on 

 each side of the upper and lower jaws, and that it surpassed 

 any known Cebws or Mycetes in size, since it must have 

 been four feet in height. 



These dimensions, however, do not exceed those of the 

 full grown Chimpanzees and Orangs ; but it is interesting 

 to find that the fossil Semnopithecus of India, and the 

 fossil Protopithecus, or Capuchin Monkey of Brazil, are, 

 like the associated lower organized extinct Mammalia, of 

 gigantic size, as compared with the nearest existing ana- 

 logues of the same localities. It is not less interesting to 

 find that the representatives of the Quadrumanous order 

 in latitudes, the climate of which is now unfit for the ex- 

 istence of apes and monkeys in a state of nature, were of 

 smaller size than their own nearest analogues, which seems 

 to indicate that although the climate was warmer than at 



