484 Dr. A. Smith Woodward — The Bone-heds of Piker mi. 



The majority of the bones are quite isolated, and most of the 

 skulls of the antelopes are so much broken that only the frontlets 

 with horn-cores remain. A large proportion of the limb-bones are 

 also sharply fractured, some having completely lost both extremities ; 

 and small pointed splinters of bone, apparently most of Rhinoceros, 

 are often very numerous. Some of the breaking must have taken 

 place before the soft parts had entirely decayed, as is shown by 

 certain feet of Bhinoceros and many limbs of Hipparion and antelopes. 

 In a few cases I found the three associated metapodials of Bhinoceros 

 with the distal ends as sharply removed as if they had been cut off 

 with one blow of a hatchet. In several instances I carefully 

 extracted the nearly complete bind limbs of Hipparion from the 

 soft marl, and in all except one I found that the tibia ended 

 abruptly in a sharp, oblique fracture at its middle, with no trace 

 of the proximal end of this bone or of the femur. Moreover, nearly 

 all the isolated tibias of Hipparion were similarly fractured ; while 

 among about fifty examples of humerus of the same animal only 

 three complete specimens were found, all the others being sharply 

 broken at the weakest point of the shaft. It is therefore evident 

 that the limbs were often torn from the trunk by a sharp break at 

 the weakest point before the decomposition of the soft parts had 

 proceeded far enough to destroy the ligaments. 



The new researches make scarcely any additions to the known 

 fauna of the Pikermi bone-beds, and confirm Professor Gaudry's 

 statement that the smaller rodents, insectivores, and bats are absent. 

 The only striking discovery consists in fragmentary evidence of 

 a gigantic tortoise, at least as large as the largest hitherto found 

 in Europe. Many specimens, however, afford important new in- 

 formation concerning the species already described. Notable among 

 these are a few portions of skull and a mandible of Pliohyrax, 

 a skull of Samotherium, a skull of Hystrix primigenia, and the greater 

 part of a skeleton of Metarctos. Eemains of Hipparion are the 

 most abundant fossils, and the new series of specimens illustrates 

 variations and growth-stages more satisfactorily than any collection 

 hitherto made. Isolated bones and skulls of Bhinoceros are also 

 common, and antelope remains occur everywhere in great profusion. 

 Limb-bones of Giraffid£e are found abundantly in the lower bone- 

 bed. Mastodon is rarer, but two small skulls were obtained from 

 the new excavations, and several very large limb-bones were found. 

 Among Carnivora, Ictitherium is the commonest form ; but i-emains 

 of Hycena are not infrequent, and evidence of four individuals of 

 Machcerodus was discovered during the present diggings. Coprolites 

 of some bone-feeding Carnivore, probably Hycsna, also occur. Skulls 

 and other portions of Mesopithecus are frequently met with. The 

 shells of the small Testudo marmorum are sometimes complete, but 

 always lack the skull and other bones of the skeleton. The 

 Chelonian shells themselves are, indeed, more frequently broken 

 and disintegrated, and a large proportion of the bone-fragments 

 discovered between and below the bone-beds are recognizable as 

 pieces of them. It is noteworthy that a good specimen of Testudo 



