376 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I PAL/EONTOLOGY. 



The phalanges of Necrolestes are present in normal numbers. Those 

 of the proximal row are shortened to an extreme degree and are hardly 

 more than irregular discs of considerable breadth. Those of the second 

 row are minute in size, but are well formed, having a distinctly defined 

 proximal trochlea, and a pulley-like distal trochlea. The un- 

 gual phalanges are all of moderate size, that of the third digit 

 not being enlarged into the great trowel-like bone seen in Chry- 

 sochloris, nor are those of the other digits reduced in anything 

 like the same degree. In shape, these unguals are all of simi- 

 lar type ; they are slender, pointed, slightly compressed and de- 

 curved, and cleft at the distal end. At the base of the phalanx 



ges of digit ... ... . 



ill left i s a raised rim, like an incipient bony hood, which overhangs 

 manus, of and conceals the proximal articular surface. This surface has 

 Necrolestes two distinct pits divided by a median ridge, and is so deep and 

 \ a f c *~ oblique that the other two phalanges of each digit are concealed 

 a p'halan- fr m sight, when the manus is viewed from the dorsal side, 

 ges from There is a large flat subungual process. 



the outer Incomplete as are these fossils, they suffice to make it clear 

 ade. b. Un- t hat ^g manus o f Necrolestes is very much less modified than 

 that of Chrysochloris, having the normal number of carpals and 

 phalanges, while all of the digits appear to be of approximately 

 equal size. At the same time the highly differentiated manus of 'Chryso- 

 chloris might very well have been derived from such a type as that of 

 the Patagonian fossil, and the modifications seen in the latter all tend in 

 the direction of the African genus, as may be observed in the peculiar 

 shape of the magnum, the reduction of the unciform, the suppression of 

 the centrale, and in the shape of the phalanges. The manus of Notoryctes 

 bears a superficial resemblance to that of Chrysochloris, a resemblance 

 which is given by the great' enlargement of the third ungual and still 

 greater size of the fourth, but all the bones of the hand are of a different 

 type and the unguals are not cleft at the tip. 



The pelvis differs from that of both the modern genera, though it is 

 most like that of Chrysochloris. The ilium is long, slender, rounded, and 

 very slightly expanded at the anterior end. It is more elongate and 

 more expanded anteriorly than in the African form, but otherwise resem- 

 bles the latter and is quite different from the ilium of Notoryctes, in which 

 the anterior expansion is far greater and is coossified with the transverse 



