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THE ATJKIFEKOUS GEAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



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ploring for the Geological Survey, on a nameless dry creek tributary to Bear 

 Creek, in Merced County, near the line of Mariposa, about six miles southwest 

 of Indian Gulch. The rocks at this place consist of a coarse, friable, light- 

 colored volcanic ash, which envelopes a large quantity of bones, and also 

 contains the remains of vegetation, and especially the casts of some small 

 fruit, or seed vessel, the relations of which have not been made out.* 



The most striking of the bones found here were those of an extinct lama, 

 much larger than the ordinary camel, of which several fragments were ob- 

 tained, With these were associated bones of the deer, and those of one 

 or more species of horse, together with others which could not be deter- 

 mined. The following statement in regard to these interesting relics was 

 furnished by Dr. Leidy : f 



1. A metacarpal bone of a ruminant of large size. In form and construc- 

 tion it bears more resemblance to that of the lama and camel than of other 

 ruminants with which I have the means of comparing it. As in the lama 

 and camel the lower articular extremities are divergent, and the articular 

 surfaces are provided with a median ridge only at the back part. In ordi- 

 nary ruminants, as in ox, deer, sheep, &c, the median ridge is produced the 

 entire extent fore and aft of the articular surfaces. The peculiar arrange- 

 ment in the extinct animal, as in the lama and camel, allowed a greater 

 spread or divergence of the toes in the extended condition. The fossil bone 

 is nineteen inches long ; the breadth of its proximal end is three and a half 

 inches, of its distal end four inches. In the skeleton of a camel in our 

 Museum the corresponding bone is thirteen inches long. 



2. The distal extremity of another metacarpal of the same animal. 



3. The proximal end of a femur, probably of the same animal, with the 

 head of the bone three inches in diameter. An acetabulum of corresponding 

 size appears to have belonged to the same individual. 



4. Two fragments of a tibia of probably the same animal. 



The bones mentioned probably represent a large extinct species of lama, 

 which may be distinguished with the name of Auchenia Calif ornica. Perhaps 

 the fossils represent a distinct genus, allied to the lama, but this is a question 

 that can only be determined by the discovery of other and more characteris- 

 tic remains of the animal. 



5. A first phalanx, in the collection, resembles in form that of a represent- 



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* This locality is of limited extent ; but deserves a thorough exploration. 



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t See Proceedings Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1870, p. 125. 



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