536 



M. A. C. Hinton — British Fossil Shrews. 



Neomys fodiens, Schreber. 

 (PL XXV, Figs. 3-5, and Text-figs. 3a, 4a.) 



Sorex fodiens, Schreber, Die Sciugethiere, vol. iii, p. 571, 1777. 

 Neomys fodiens, Dorothea Bate, Geol. Mag., Dec. IV, Vol. VIII, p. 104, 1901 

 (Wye Cave). 

 Material examined. — (1) Four mandibular rami (three, including 

 one perfect one, in the Corner Coll., one in Hinton Coll.) from the 

 Ightham Fissures; (2) a left ramus from the Dog Holes Cave, Warton 

 Crag, in the British Museum (presented by Mr. J. W. Jackson) ; 

 (3) parts of two skulls and a right ramus from the submerged forest 

 of Leasowe (B.M. M. 7593). 



Posterior views of condyles of fossil Shrews. 



Remarks. — Miss Dorothea Bate has referred "an upper jaw . . . 

 which still retained its full number of teeth ", which she found in the 

 Wye Cave, to this species (Geol. Mag., Dec. IV, Vol. VIII, p. 101). 

 With this exception all the previous records of Neomys fodiens in 

 a fossil state in Britain appear to have been founded on error. 



Late Pleistocene : Ightham Fissures and Dog Holes. The mandibulse 

 (Figs. 3, 3«, 4, 4a) from these deposits have the coronoid process 

 a little lower relatively than in recent jaws of N. fodiens, and the 

 condyle appears to be a trifle larger in proportion. They may belong 

 to a distinct form, but with the scanty material before me I should 

 not be justified in separating them from JV. fodiens. 



Holocene : Leasowe. The remains from this deposit agree perfectly 

 with recent N. fodiens. 



