Dr. Forsyth Major — Extinct Primates of Madagascar. 499 



forward ; position of the lachrymal foramen inside the orbit (at 

 least in one species, viz. N. Roberti) ; conformation of the internal 

 pair of upper incisors ; number of lower incisors ; limb-bones 

 as a whole in several features intermediate between monkeys and 

 lemurs (entepicondylus of humerus strongly developed and directed 

 backwards, etc.). 



4. Characters which, being proper to Nesopithecus, mark its 

 specialization ; e.g., preponderance of ante-molars over the true 

 molars, especially in the upper jaw ; blade-shaped premolars ; 

 beginning of lophodonty in the true molars, the latter character 

 being apparently more pronounced in some species than in others. 



The first three sets of characters united are precisely such as must 

 have been possessed by the immediate ancestors of the Cerco- 

 pithecidse. It is therefore difficult to imagine that the simian 

 chai-acters of Nesopithecus do not indicate any nearer relationship 

 to the Cercopithecidfe, but that they have been independently 

 developed in the former as a sort of simian mimicry. 



The position thus taken up by the writer will have to be 

 expressed in classification by giving up the two separate suborders 

 of Primates, thus going one step farther than Mivart. Nesopithecus, 

 with Hadropithecus (see below), appear to form a side-branch of the 

 evolving line from lemurs to monkeys, branching off close below the 

 Cercopithecidas. 



IV. HADROPITHECUS. 



A further interesting addition to our knowledge of extinct 

 Malagasy Primates is Hadropithecus stenognathus, Lorenz.^ I under- 

 stand from Dr. v. Lorenz that he now holds this genus to be closely 

 related to Nesopithecus, a view with which I fully agree. The 

 imperfect mandible upon which the genus is based shows the 

 number of teeth to be the same as in Nesopithecus, viz., on each 

 side six cheek-teeth, of which the three posterior are undoubtedly 

 true molars, and two incisors inserted in a still more erect position 

 than in the latter genus ; in fact, they are well-nigh vertical. Of 

 the cheek-teeth, the true molars preponderate in horizontal extension 

 over the ante-molars, the opposite being the case in Nesopithecus. 



In their pattern the true molars are not very different from those 

 of the last-named genus, the difference appearing to be mainly the 

 result of a more hypselodont character in tlie teeth of Radropithecus. 

 The posterior premolar of the latter is almost molariform, and the 

 ante-molars as a whole are not blade-shaped, a character which gives 

 quite a peculiar appearance to the dentition of Nesopithecus, recalling 

 to mind the Plagiaulacidse, as well as Thjlacoleo and Potoroiis 

 ( Hypsiprymnus) . 



1 " Uber einige Reste ausgestorbener Primaten von Madagaskar " : loc. cit., 

 pp. 2-8, pi. i, figs. 1-7. 



