CARNIVORA. 



third tooth behind the canine are proved to have had milk-predecessors. 

 The huinerus is destitute of an entepicondylar foramen. From the Santa 

 Cruz Formation of Patagonia. 



Sub-Order 2. Camivora Vera. 



In all the true terrestrial Carnivora the brain is of large or 

 moderate size, and the cerebral hemispheres exhibit well- 

 developed convolutions. The small incisors are almost always 

 in three pairs above and below, rarely reduced to two pairs. 

 One side-tooth in each jaw namely, pm. 4 above and the 

 opposing m. 1 below is always specially modified for cutting, 

 or for cutting and bruising. This is known as the sectorial or 

 carnassial tooth, and the premolars in front of it are always 

 more or less sharply pointed and compressed, while the molars 

 behind it are tuberculated for crushing. The clavicle is 

 incomplete or absent ; but the limbs are always mobile, with 

 complete and separate radius and ulna (tibia and fibula), 

 and the clawed digits are never less than four in number. 

 The scaphoid and lunar bones of the carpus are fused into 

 a scapholunar element. 



The existing wolves, dogs, jackals, and foxes, or Canidse, 

 are among the least altered representatives of the primitive 

 true terrestrial Carnivora in the present fauna of the globe. 

 Occasionally, indeed, they still retain certain features which 

 have been plausibly interpreted as remnants of structures 

 originally characteristic of their Metatherian ancestry ; such, 

 for example, as small epipubes like the marsupial bones (in 

 females of Canis bengalensis and C. mesomelas), and a slight 

 inflection of the angle of the mandible (Otocyon). They have 

 always been characterized by an elongated skull and complete 

 dentition, only with the occasional loss of the hindermost lower 

 molar. The blade of the upper sectorial tooth consists only of 

 two lobes, with a small inner tubercle. The auditory bullae are 

 inflated, but never divided by an internal septum. The limbs 

 are always slender, and the claws are not retractile. These 

 animals first appear, in fact, in the Upper Eocene of Europe ; 

 are abundantly represented in the Miocene both of Europe and 

 North America ; are known to have reached India by the early 



