1870.] DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. 467 
was very rudimentary ; so that I am inclined to think this tooth is lost 
comparatively early in life. The succeeding premolars, 2 and 3, are of 
fair size, being a trifle broader, though not quite so thick, as the upper 
premolars 1 and 2, with which they come into contact during masti- 
cation. These latter are short; and the former accordingly are 
lengthened and raised somewhat above the plane of detrition, chiefly 
however mesially. The said two hinder lower premolars are each 
sinuous in contour, from the tolerably pronounced character of the 
enamel ridges and concavities. The last has well-defined lobes, and 
is rather larger than that in advance. Together they are 0°6 inch 
broad, and about 0°2 thick. 
The hindermost inferior true molar, quite 1 inch broad and 0:3 
inch greatest thickness, has, as in Bovines, a third posterior lobe, of 
larger size. The penultimate molar is 0°6, the antepenultimate 0°5 
inch in antero-posterior diameter, and they are each slightly narrower 
across than the last tooth of the series. 
(E.) Comparison of the Cranium and Dentition —“Sceleton, 
maxime quoad cranium, singulare est’”’*. These few words of Pallas 
comprehend much. When Dr. Falconer? wrote that “in the Siva- 
therium we have a Ruminant connecting the family with the Pachy- 
dermata, and at the same time so marked by individual peculiarities 
as to be without an analogue in-its order,’’ he was at too remote a 
distance from brother naturalists or easy access to libraries; else he 
he would at once have recognized in the Antilope saiga certain of 
those outré features which he and Captain Cautley so graphically 
~ describe in the Murkunda fossil. Other, later writers have not failed 
to note resemblances. In the Saiga, unquestionably, we have a re- 
petition of the short nasals of the Sivathere, and large size of the 
nasal échancrure ; but with these peculiarities further likeness ceases, 
unless it may be that the lachrymal and premaxilla bore analogy ; 
these, however, the state of the fossil specimens does not admit of com- 
paring. The Titanotherium proutii of Professor Leidyt and Mega- 
cerops coloradensis of Dr. Linz§, are representative of two ancient 
North-American forms which obviously have relations to the above, 
inasmuch as thickness and diminished length of nasals predominate. 
The form of teeth in the first two of these fossils is unlike that in 
Saiga; those of the third are not known. All three, as well as the 
allied Bramatherium, are furthermore distinguished from Saiga in 
their possessing four horns, the anterior pair prefrontal. 
When we come to compare existing Bovide with that under 
consideration, none have such short nasals, premaxillaries, and 
scooping out of maxille. In these respects there is no connexion 
whatever with its associates Gazella, Procapra, Pantholops, and 
Cervicapra. 
In Pantholops, however, as in Eleotragus and Rupicapra, the 
* Op. cit. p. 44. 
t Asiatic Researches, vol. xix. (1836), and, with additional MS. notes, in 
Dr. Murchison’s collected edition of his works, 1868. 
{ The Ancient Fauna of Nebraska, p. 72. 
§ Acad. of Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Meeting for Jan. 1870. 
