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XI. On a Species of Dormouse (Myoxus) occurring in the Fossil state in Malta. 

 By A. Leith Adams, M.B., F.G.S. 



Read May 9th, 1867. 



[Plate LIV.] 



In the 'Journal of the Royal Dublin Society' for November 1861, I figured the dental 

 aspect of this Dormouse, which I have proposed to call Myoxus melitensis. But as the 

 figures there given do not fully indicate the characters of the animal, I have deemed it 

 requisite to furnish the following further illustrations, taken from the numerous speci- 

 mens that have since come under my notice. The contour of the cranium, the relatively 

 small size of the anterior and posterior molars compared with the intermediate ones 

 (which are about as long as they are broad on the crowns, the bold machcerides pre- 

 senting well-defined, undulating ridges), and the absence of the small grinder in the 

 upper jaw separate it from the Sciurina, and assimilate it to the subfamily Myoxina, 

 whilst its large proportions represent a species distinct from any other known Myoxus, 

 recent or fossil. 



Among the abundant remains discovered by me m the caves, fissures, and alluvial 

 deposits of Malta were several lower jaws comparatively more slender, and presenting a 

 more marked concavity on the lower border, whilst they did not seem to differ in any 

 other respect from the others (see op. cit. plate 2. fig. 11). To the form to which these 

 belong I have given the name oi Myoxus cartel; it may be doubtful, however, whether 

 the above characters are really sufficient to create a distinct species from the other, wliich 

 I have named Myoxus melitensis. 



This Rodent seems to have existed in enormous numbers, inasmuch as its remains are 

 met with in abundance throughout the cavern- and fissure-deposits, up even to the 

 superficial alluvium now in course of formation, so as almost to indicate that the animal 

 may have outlived many, if not all, of the other quadrupeds &c. with which its remains 

 are so frequently associated. 



The Reports on the Maltese Caves, read at the Meetings of the British Association in 

 1865 and 1866, together with my other communications on the fossil fauna of the 

 Maltese fissures and alluvial deposits, give full particulars with reference to the 

 localities and mode of occurrence of this and the other members of the fossil fauna. 

 One point comes out clearly in the stratigraphical distribution of the remains of 

 Myoxus melitensis, viz. that the animal lived and died in the caverns of Malta ; whilst 

 at the same time, from the exceedingly large numbers found strewing the lower portion 



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