hrdliCka] skeletal EEMAINS OF EAKLY MAN 371 



femora, is entirely wanting. On comparison a similar presence of 

 the lower and defect of the upper curvature is seen to be common 

 to the femora of many mammals, among which are a number of the 

 Carnivora. 



Besides the slight curve backward, the shaft presents above its 

 middle a rather well-marked bend outward. This feature occurs in 

 man but not regularly or exclusively so. It was also present and that 

 to very much the same degree as in the Tetraprothomo, in the femur 

 of an adolescent Bolivian bear in the Museo Nacional, Buenos Aires, 

 and is found well marked in other bears, in the American Canidae, and 

 in fossil Felidse. 



The ]\Ionte Hermoso femur presents in its upper half a fairly well 

 defined torsion outward. In this feature it may be said to approxi- 

 mate the femur of man more than that of the other Primates or of the 

 modern cats, but it comes quite as near also to the modern Canidse 

 and to some of the fossil Carnivora, in which torsion is decidedly 

 greater than in the apes or the modern Felidse. 



The stout median edge of the shaft shows a prominent secondary 

 ridge running parallel with but more posterior to the border, and 

 extending over slightly more than the middle third of the bone. 

 A trace of such a ridge was found in a few of the Carnivora and in 

 a baboon, possibly in an alouata, but none in other Primates or man. 



From the great trochanter to the plantaris tuberosity below, the 

 Tetraprothomo femur presents an antero-lateral surface, wliich is met 

 with only occasionally and in a moderate degree in the upper fourth 

 to two-fifths of the shaft in man and in some of the apes.^ More 

 closely related forms are seen in the hyena, jaguar, ocelot, jaguarondi, 

 and gray wolf. 



Postero-laterally the upper part of the bone presents remnants of a 

 sharp but stout-based high ridge, which occupies the place of and is 

 analogous to the occasional third trochanter in man but shows differ- 

 ent form. This elevation is in direct continuation with the gluteal 

 crest and the latter forms an inseparable constituent of the linea 

 aspera. The upper portion of the anterior border of the third tro- 

 chanter is somewhat overhanging, much as in the jaguar femur used 

 for comparisons (25097, U. S. National Museum). 



Laterally, below the third trochanter, there is in the Tetraprothomo 

 no trace of the belly which forms, particularly in Indian femora, a 

 prominent feature of the usual flattening of the bone at this point ; 

 the shaft is slightly flattened in this region as in some recent and 

 fossil Carnivora and other mammals, but bears little resemblance to 

 the human type. 



> In one ofthealouatas examined {A. sen.. No. 4785, U. S. National Museum), a narrow and almost wholly 

 lateral surface extends from below the great trochanter over about five-sixths of the shaft. 



