392 MAMMALIA. 



Some of the true Carnivora in the Upper Eocene of Europe, 

 characterized by a dental series as nearly complete as that 

 of the typical Canidse, begin to exhibit a shortening of the face 

 and jaws, with a concomitant reduction in size of the anterior 

 premolars. The flattened tuberculated molars remain relatively 

 large and powerful ; and the skeleton, so far as can be de- 

 termined from fragments, begins to increase in stoutness, 

 eventually in the Miocene period becoming much like that of 

 the bears. There is, indeed, not much doubt that some of the 

 animals of this group are the direct ancestors of the bears ; and 

 the few forms already known so completely fill the gap between 

 the Canidae and the Ursidse that it is no longer possible to 

 define these two families. The genera Cephalogale, Simocyon, 

 Amphicyon, Hemicyon, and Hycenarctos, may be particularly 

 mentioned in illustration of this annectant series. 



Cephalogale. Dental series as nearly complete as usual in Canis and 

 Cynodictis, but all the premolars and molars with a strong basal cingulum, 

 and pm. 1 to 3 relatively small in each jaw. The snout and jaws corre- 

 spondingly shortened. From the Upper Eocene of France (Phosphorites 

 of Quercy) and Switzerland, arid from the Lower Miocene of France and 

 Germany. The largest known species are scarcely so large as a wolf. 



Simocyon. A small, highly specialized animal, in which the three 

 reduced anterior premolars may entirely disappear, while only two molars 

 remain in the lower jaw as in the upper jaw. The sagittal crest of the 

 shortened skull is inconspicuous. Simocyon diaphorus is known by a 

 mandibular ramus from the Lower Pliocene of Eppelsheim, Hesse Darm- 

 stadt ; while S. primigenius is represented by a fine skull and mandible 

 0'16m. in length, as also by other remains, from the Lower Pliocene of 

 Pikermi, near Athens. 



Amphicyon (fig. 220). The dental series is complete, but the canines 

 are relatively very large, while pm. 1 to 3 and m. 3 in both jaws are 

 diminutive, the latter sometimes even absent. The canines are com- 

 pressed to a sharp edge posteriorly. Upper molars 1, 2 are still broader 

 than long, but usually larger than the sectorial pm. 4, which has a sharp, 

 two-lobed blade, with a diminutive inner tubercle. The limb-bones found 

 in the same deposits as the jaws, and referred to Amphicyon with much 

 probability of correctness, seem to indicate comparatively long legs, with 

 short five-toed feet, evidently plantigrade. The humerus is slightly 

 expanded at the distal end, with a large entepicondylar foramen ; the 

 ulna exhibits only a short olecranon process, as in the bears. The femur 

 is slender, with a distinct third trochanter. Amphicyon occurs in the 

 Lower and Middle Miocene of France, Germany, and Austria ; and some 



