No. 1. — New Fossil Mammals from Cuba. 

 By Glover M. Allen. 



The recent discoveries of fossil mammals in Porto Rico, San 

 Domingo, and Cuba (Anthony, 1916, 191Ga; Miller, 1916a) indicate 

 the former existence in these islands of a very interesting and remark- 

 able assemblage of indigenous species many of which have probably 

 become extinct within only very recent times. The remains hitherto 

 discovered represent five extinct genera of hystricine rodents (not 

 including AmblvThiza of Anguilla and St. Martin's), at least two genera 

 of ground sloths, and a new family of insectivores (Xesophontidae). 

 Further systematic search will doubtless disclose additional remains 

 on other of the Antillean islands, the study of which must throw much 

 light on the distributional problems of the West Indies. 



The Museum of Comparative Zo5logy has received from Professor 

 Carlos de la Torre, the distinguished Cuban naturalist, a fragment of 

 -bone-breccia obtained in the Province of IMatanzas, Cuba, from a 

 ' caverna' — cleft or cavity as distinguished from ' eueva,' a large cave. 

 This block is less than one fourth of a cubic foot in volume, and appar- 

 ently represents a complete section of the floor deposit, some four 

 inches thick. The bottom portion consists of red cave earth, and a 

 few limestone pebbles with much admixture of minute bone-fragments. 

 The more superficial portion is almost entirely composed of small 

 mammalian bones, indistinctly stratified, for the greater part crushed 

 to microscopic fragments. The whole mass is mixed with particles 

 of cave earth, and solidly cemented together by the deposition of lime 

 from infiltrating water. As to the age of the deposit, there is of course 

 no indication beyond the fact of its having been laid down in a cavern 

 of no great antiquity. Presumably it is of Pleistocene or even more 

 recent age. 



In spite of the very fragmentary nature of the bones, and the 

 solidity with which they were cemented together, a number of nearly 

 complete jaws and palates were extricated. Lower jaws, as usual in 

 such deposits, are best preserved and most frequent; portions of long 

 bones, though common, were usually too broken to be of value. A 

 careful study of the jaws and teeth recovered, reveals three very inter- 

 esting new species. The first is an insectivore of a type probably 



