THE MIOCENE OF EUROPE, ASfA, AND NORTH AMERICA 301 



true camels. Procamehis is a highly varied form, inchuling massive as well 

 as more slender and graceful types, but the limbs are of moderate length, 

 or proportioned as in the recent camels; it is regarded as a generalized 

 form which may have given rise to both the New and Old World camels. 



The ancient camels of Montana have been investigated recently by 

 Douglass^ and are shown to include two species {Procamelus elrodi, P. 

 madisonius). The former contrasts widely in the proportions of its head and 

 neck with the Alticamelus alius of Matthew, because the head is nearly as 

 large, while the neck is very much shorter, the total length of the neck 

 being 1,036 mm., while that of A. alius is 1,560 mm., or half as long again. 



The American deer family is still represented by the genus Blaslomeryx 

 (B. wellsi). Scott has reported a horned member of this phylum. At this 

 stage we first come to know, through the explorations of Douglass in Mon- 

 tana,^ the true characters of the form which has long figured in palaeonto- 

 logical literature as Blaslomeryx and Palceomeryx, but was really an entirely 

 distinct animal, to which Douglass has given the name Dromomeryx. There 

 are some reasons for considering it not one of the Cervicornia, but one of 

 the Cavicornia, resembling in certain characters the American prong-horned 

 antelope, or Anlilocapra, in others some of the Old World antelopes, although 

 the teeth are still of the brachyodont or browsing type. Matthew, on the 

 other hand, doubts whether it is distinct from the original deer-like Palceo- 

 meryx. Contemporary with these forms were several species of Merycodus, 

 with its c6rvid antlers of the deciduous type. The peccaries are repre- 

 sented by Proslhennops. 



Among the raptorial types the machierodonts reappear, animals of 

 large size, accompanied by a form resembling the Miocene Pseudcelurus of 

 Europe, of the species P. inlrepidus. Among the mustelids we find the 

 marten (Muslela), weasel (Putorius), primitive otter (PolamolJierium) , and 

 the first recorded appearance in America of the true otter (Lulra). These 

 animals are fairly abundant in the river channel formations of this period. 

 Similarly the raccoon or procyonid family is represented by a form (Leplarc- 

 tus) more modern in type than the Middle Miocene Phlaocyon ; Wortman ^ 

 observed (p. 239), "This animal offers a number of transitional characters 

 between the more typical Procyonidae and the aberrant Cercoleptes." 



The canids include several species of Mlurodon, a typical dog derived 

 from the Tephrocyon type of the Middle Miocene. Another canid (Ischyro- 

 cyon) is intermediate between the Cyan or dhole and the Amphicyon group, 

 with large grinding teeth as in the latter. It is interesting to note that the 



' Douglass, E., A Description of a New Species of Procnmelus from the Upper Miocene of 

 Montana with Notes upon Procamelus madisonius Douglass. Ann. Carneg. Mus., Vol. V, 

 DOS. 2 and 3, 1909, pp. 159-165. 



- Douglass, E., Dromomeryx, a New Genus of American Ruminants. Ann. Carneg. Mus. 

 Vol. V, no. 11, 1908-1909, pp. 457-479. 



^ Sec Wortman, J. L., On the Affinities of Leptarclus primus. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., Vol. VI, 1894. 



