2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
indurated nodule in which it was found, by Franklin L. Pearce. The 
wash drawings accompanying this paper were made by William D. 
Crockett. 
PREVIOUS STUDIES 
Matthew has briefly outlined the history of investigation relative to 
Patriofelis up to 1909. A recapitulation, however, with additional de- 
tails, and comments on more recent studies, may not be unwarranted. 
Patriofelis was first described by Leidy in 1870 from a pair of 
lower jaws (U.S.N.M. No. 105) collected by Hayden in 1869 near 
Fort Bridger. A major portion of both rami are represented, includ- 
ing alveoli for all the cheek teeth, but portions of the crowns of 
P,—M, are preserved only on the left side. Leidy did not so indi- 
cate, but it is evident from his illustrations of the right ramus pub- 
lished in 1873 (pl. 2, fig. 10) that the tooth portions shown were 
drawn in reverse from the opposite side. Leidy first regarded his 
new form, Patriofelis ulta, as probably belonging to the cat family, 
but in 1873 regarded it as “perhaps intermediate to the feline and 
canine animals.” 
In the meantime (1872) Marsh described the new genus, Limno- 
felis, with two new species, L. ferox and L. latidens, based essentially 
on a lower jaw portion with M, (Y.P.M. No. 11865) from Henry’s 
Fork and a last upper premolar (Y.P.M. No. 10904) from the Grizzly 
Buttes respectively. Later in the same year, with additional material 
at hand, he proposed the new generic name Oreocyon for Limnofelis 
latidens. Marsh did not discuss the possible relationships of these 
animals, other than to compare their size with that of a lion and to 
state that the lower canine and premolars of O. latidens “somewhat 
resemble those in the Hyaena.” He later concluded, however, that 
Limnofelis was apparently related to the cats, but nowhere did he 
discuss the possible relationship to Leidy’s Patriofelis from the same 
beds. 
Although rather generally ignoring Marsh’s names, Cope worked 
out a rather orderly arrangement of the creodonts and in 1880 (fig- 
ured in 1884a) described as new the form Protopsalis tigrinus on 
the basis of two lower molars (A.M.N.H. No. 4805), a canine and 
certain bone elements from the lower Eocene Wind River beds. He 
included this genus tentatively, as he had earlier allocated Patriofelis, 
in his family Oxyaenidae, which he regarded (1884a) as ancestral to 
the Felidae. The same year (1884b), however, he abandoned this idea 
in favor of the Miacidae as the ancestral group. 
In 1892, Wortman, in a part of a joint paper with Osborn on the 
