512 Dr. J. W. Spencer—Discovery of Fossil Mammals in Cuba. 
according to my conception of their affinities based upon the figures 
and descriptions. If the latter are erroneous with respect to the 
distinctive particulars relied upon, Opiliotarbus and Geraphrynus will 
probably fall as synonyms of Geratarbus and Architarbus respectively. 
a. Sternal area of prosoma elliptical and wide ; cox: of legs of first pair not meeting 
in the middle line beneath those of the palpi; opisthosoma with eight terga, 
the anterior five short and straight, the posterior three long. 
Fam. PHALANGIoTARBID (Phalangiotarbus). 
a. Sternal area of prosoma quite narrow, generally linear; cox of legs of first pair 
meeting in the middle line beneath those of the palpi . Fam. ARcHITARBIDA. 
b. Posterior border of the carapace straight ; the anterior terga of the opisthosoma 
also straight. 
ec. Opisthosoma with only eight tergal plates, the sixth three times as long as 
the fifth and three times as wide as it islong . : . Opiliotarbus. 
c', Opisthosoma with nine tergal plates, the sixth twice as long as the fifth and 
five or six times as wide as it is long . .  Geratarbus. 
b'. Posterior border of the carapace evenly convex or considerably produced in the 
middle line; opisthosoma with nine tergal plates, of which at least the first 
and second are curved round the posterior border of tke carapace. 
d. Sternal area of the prosoma short and subcircular; terga ot the opisthosoma 
progressively increasing in length from before backwards . Architarbus. 
d'. Sternal area of the prosoma long and narrow; last three terga of the 
opisthosoma markedly longer than the others . . Geraphrynus. 
VIII.—Nore on rue Discovery By Proressor C. pE ta ToRRE oF 
Fossizr Mammats 1n Cusa. 
By Dr. J. W. Spencer, M.A., B.A.C., ete. 
T the recent meeting of the International Geological Congress 
in Stockholm, Professor C. de la Torre, of the University of 
Havana, made the announcement of a discovery of fossil mammals 
of Pleistocene age, in cavern deposits of Central Cuba. Hitherto the 
known fossil Vertebrates were few. Mr. T. W. Vaughan, in America, 
had published a long paper discrediting those previously reported, but 
before that time the late Professor E. D. Cope (America’s great 
Vertebrate Paleeontologist) had passed over the doubtful forms, and 
accepted especially one species of Edentate, supposing that other 
forms were buried and submerged during the subsequent depressions 
of the land. 
Professor de la Torre’s investigations have now established Cope’s 
hypothesis that many other fossil mammals occur in Cuba. Some 
of the specimens, representing half a dozen species of Rodents, 
Edentates, and other forms, were shown at Stockholm, while others 
are at the Central Port Museum, New York, under Professor Osborn. 
It may be added that the writer has also found the remains of 
Amblyrhiza (a Rodent as large as a deer) in a cavern on St. Martin, 
one of the north-eastern of the West Indian Islands—a notice of 
its occurrence in that island not having been published until the 
present time. 
Apart from the paleontological interest, the value of this great 
discovery of fossils lies in its confirmation of the recent connexion 
of the islands with the continent, and the late high continental 
elevation as shown in the ‘‘ Reconstruction of the Antillian Continent” 
