Febeuaey 12, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



259 



noid to the malar. I admit this character 

 occurs in no other known Lemuroid. How- 

 ever, in the fossil genera related to Tarsius, 

 that is in Anaptomorphus and Necrolemur, 

 this sphenoidal lamina in the skull is not 

 present. 



In support of the view that Tarsius is a 

 generalized member of the Lemuroidea, I 

 wish to enumerate a number of its most 

 important dental and osteological charac- 

 ters : the lower incisors and canines are 

 normal in form as in the extinct ancestral 

 Lemurs, the lachrymal fossa is exposed as 

 in the Lemurs, the fourth digit of the 

 pes is longer than the third, the second 

 digit of the pes is provided with a claw, 

 and, lastly, the calcaneum and navicular are 

 elongated as in Galago and Cheirogaleus. 

 These characters are all those of the true 

 Lemurs, and I believe they are essential. 

 In regard to the presence of a claw on the 

 second digit of the pes, that may be consid- 

 ered a primitive character, as in my opinion 

 the Lemurs have been derived from an un- 

 guiculate form, and not from an ungulate 

 type ( Condylarthra) . 



I do not see that the characters of the 

 dentition of Tarsius bear directly on the 

 question as to its close relationship with 

 the Apes. The upper molars of Tarsius 

 are of the primitive tritubercular type, and 

 the lower are tuberculo-sectorial. These 

 types of teeth would be the primitive ones 

 from which those of both the Apes and Le- 

 murs were derived. 



The form of the incisors and canines in 

 Anaptomorphus is not known, but from the 

 resemblance of the skull of Anaptomorphus 

 to that of Necrolemur and Tarsius one might 

 conclude that the anterior part of the denti- 

 tion would be like that of Tarsius. In 

 Anaptomorphus homunculus, as shown by Os- 

 born and Wortman, there are three lower 

 premolars, but in A. aemulus there are said 

 to be only two. In other words, the last- 

 named species is supposed to have the true 



simian dental formula, namely : I^, Cj, Pm^, 

 M,. I believe, however, that we may in- 

 terpret the arrangement of the teeth in 

 Anaptomorphus aemulus differently, and in 

 that case the lower dental formula would 

 read-? Ij, C^, 'Pm^, M,, or the same as in 

 Tarsius. 



The structure of the skull in Necrolemur, 

 Anaptomorphus and Tarsius is very simi- 

 lar. In all we have greatly enlarged or- 

 bits and huge auditory bullse. In. compar- 

 ing the teeth of these genera, we find that 

 Anaptomorphus and Tarsius have retained 

 the primitive tritubercular structure in 

 their true molars, whereas in Necrolemur 

 the superior molars are of the quadrituber- 

 cular type, and the lower true molars have 

 lost the antero-internal cusp. One charac- 

 ter of the dentition of Anaptomorphus, as 

 shown by Cope, relates this genus more 

 closely to the Anthropoids than any other 

 known Lemur; this is, that the third upper 

 premolar has an internal cusp as in the 

 Apes. With the exception of this special 

 dental character, Anaptomorphus is a true 

 Lemur. 



In Adapis of the Upper Eocene of Europe 

 the general structure of the Molars closely 

 resembles that of the recent Lemurs, espe- 

 cially the genera Lemur and Lepidolemur. 

 In Adapis however, the pattern of the last 

 lower and upper premolar is nearly like 

 that of the true molars; and on account of 

 the complex structure of this tooth, Adapis 

 has been excluded from the line leading to 

 any of the recent Lemurs. This objection 

 as to the Adapidce being ancestral forms 

 can now be removed, as there is a beauti- 

 fully preserved skull in the collection of 

 the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, from the Phos- 

 phoriteSjWhich represents a new genus of this 

 family, and the last premolar in both jaws of 

 this new type is perfectly simple in structure 

 and of the same form as in the majority of 

 recent Lemurs . This cranium is essentially 

 that of a living Lemur, closely allied to 



