280 PROF. HUXLEY ON THE CRANIAL AND [Apr. 6, 



inner cusp of both the upper and the lower sectorials (which measure 

 not less than 28 millims. in length) obsolete, has no representative 

 in the existing fauna. This fact is the more interesting, as the den- 

 tition of Palaocyon, in some respects, presents a more thoroughly 

 carnivorous aspect than that of the Old-World Wolves. 



Information respecting the Pliocene Canidas is scanty. One of 

 the best-known forms is the Canis horhonidus (O. mec/amastoides of 

 Pomel), briefly described and figured by Gervais in the ' Palconto- 

 logic Fran^aisc' (ed. 2, p. 213, pi. xxvii. fig. 7). An almost entire 

 skeleton was obtained from the Pliocene of Cerde near Issoire. The 

 skull is 150 millims. long; and Gervais justly observes that the 

 ramus of the mandible resembles that of C. cancrivorus. From the 

 figure I judge that the teeth were no less similar to those of this 

 species. The humerus has an intercondyloid but no supracondyloid 

 perforation ; and the digits are five in front and four behind. 



Opinions differ as to whether the deposits of ffiningen should be 

 reckoned Lower Pliocene or Upper jMiocene. The skull of the 

 famous fossil Fox of CEningen, originally described by Mantell, and 

 subsequently made the type of a new genus, Galecymis, by Professor 

 Owen, is unfortunately not in a sufficiently good state of jireservation 

 for the determination of the question whether it belongs to the Alo- 

 pecoid or to the Thooid series. In its cranial and dental measure- 

 ments it agrees with surprising closeness with the common Fox ; and 

 this correspondence extends even to the form and dimensions of the 

 left upper sectorial tooth, which I have recently found could be 

 readily exposed for about half its length in the specimen preserved 

 in the Geological Society's Museum. There is, however, a rather 

 stronger indication of a secondary cusp on the anterior part of the 

 base of the blade of this tooth than is usual in the Foxes. At pre- 

 sent I fail to see any sufl^icient ground for placing this animal in a 

 distinct genus from the Foxes. Considering the known amount of 

 variation in the pollex of different Canidse, its slightly greater propor- 

 tional length in the CEningen skeleton, though an interesting fact in 

 itself, can hardly be regarded as of much systematic importance. 



j\Iuch light lias recently been thrown upon the palaeontological 

 history of the Canidse by M. Filhol's ' important researches upon 

 the fossils of the phosphoritic deposits of Upper Eocene age in France, 

 and especially upon the abundant remains of the genus Cynodictis. 

 Of these " viverrine Dogs," as M. Filhol calls them, he distin- 

 guishes no fewer than seventeen varieties, which shade off, on the 

 one hand, into true Yiverridse, and, on the other hand, into the 

 Amphicyonidse. 



M. Filhol has so fully described and so well figured examples of 

 a large suite of specimens of the diflJ'erent forms of Cynodictis, that 

 it is possible for those who have not enjoyed the opportunity of 

 examining his materials to form an independent judgment as to the 

 conclusions which may b.? drawn from them ; and on one or two 

 points I venture to dissent from his views. 



1 " Ee^lierches sur les phosplioi-ites de Quercy," Bibliotlieque de rficole des 

 Hautes Etudes, xv. & xvi. 1876, 1877. 



