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XI. On a Species of Dormouse (Myoxus) occurring in the Fossil state in Malta. 
By A. Luitn Apams, I.B., F.G.S. 
Read May 9th, 1867. 
[Piate LIV.] 
IN the «Journal of the Royal Dublin Society’ for November 1861, I figured the dental 
aspect of this Dormouse, which I have proposed to call Myoxus melitensis. But as the 
figures there given do not fully indicate the characters of the animal, I have deemed it 
requisite to furnish the following further illustrations, taken from the numerous speci- 
mens that have since come under my notice. The contour of the cranium, the relatively 
small size of the anterior and posterior molars compared with the intermediate ones 
(which are about as long as they are broad on the crowns, the bold machwrides pre- 
senting well-defined, undulating ridges), and the absence of the small grinder in the 
upper jaw separate it from the Sciwrina, and assimilate it to the subfamily Myoxina, 
whilst its large proportions represent a species distinct from any other known Myozrus, 
recent or fossil. 
Among the abundant remains discovered by me in the caves, fissures, and alluvial 
deposits of Malta were several lower jaws comparatively more slender, and presenting a 
more marked concavity on the lower border, whilst they did not seem to differ in any 
other respect from the others (see op. cit. plate 2. fig. 11). To the form to which these 
belong I have given the name of Myorus cartei; it may be doubtful, however, whether 
the above characters are really sufficient to create a distinct species from the other, which 
I have named Myoxus melitensis. 
This Rodent seems to have existed in enormous numbers, inasmuch as its remains are 
met with in abundance throughout the cayern- and fissure-deposits, up even to the 
superficial alluvium now in course of formation, so as almost to indicate that the animal 
may have outlived many, if not all, of the other quadrupeds &c. with which its remains 
are so frequently associated. 
The Reports on the Maltese Caves, read at the Meetings of the British Association in 
1865 and 1866, together with my other communications on the fossil fauna of the 
Maltese fissures and alluvial deposits, give full particulars with reference to the 
localities and mode of occurrence of this and the other members of the fossil fauna. 
One point comes out clearly in the stratigraphical distribution of the remains of 
Myoxus melitensis, viz. that the animal lived and died in the caverns of Malta; whilst 
at the same time, from the exceedingly large numbers found strewing the lower portion 
VOL. VI.—PART V, 2u 
