ri i 
242 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 
The phalanges of the second row are also proportionally shorter than those in 
the older genus, but display the same curious depression and asymmetrical outlines. 
Perhaps the most curious feature of these phalanges are their articulations with the 
terminal phalanges. In the dogs these articulations are decidedly concave from 
side to side and convex from the dorsal to the plantar faces, while in the present 
form they are very much less concave in the plantar region and inclined to be 
convex from side to side at the dorsal faces, like those in the cats. 
The ungual phalanges are high, not very long, and compressed laterally. There 
isa plainly marked groove on the plantar faces near the distal ends of the claw- 
plates. The latter rise to a sharp ridge dorsally and are of slightly greater trans- 
verse diameter on the plantar faces. Proximally the claw-plate is surrounded by a 
heavy hood, which terminates palmarly in a heavy mass together with the subungual 
process. The latter extends well back under the distal articulation of the middle 
phalanx, when articulated with the latter, and supported a strong tendon of the 
flexor profundus digitorum. Dorsally the hood does not project backward so as to 
overhang the articulation for the median phalanx as in the cats, but the hood in 
this region is nevertheless of considerable size and has apparently a rugose area for 
the attachment of some retractal ligaments. The articulation for the median 
phalanx is biconcave as in the felines. 
After a careful study, there does not seem to be any reason to doubt that this 
animal had some power of retracting its claws, and in this respect it is identical 
with Daphanus. 
In Amphicyon major Mc. IIL? is proportionally short, the shaft is more greatly 
arched dorsally, the palmar tuberosity is heavier and the distal trochlea is more 
hemispherical on the dorsal face than in Daphanodon, which altogether gives even 
a more feline look to the manus, so far as we know it, in the European species. In 
Cynodesmus brachypus the only bones present which represent the manus are the 
magnum and Me. III. The former is decidedly more canine in character than the 
corresponding bone in Daphwnodon, being less depressed in front, having the ascend- 
ing ridge, which articulates with the scapho-lunar, of much less vertical and greater 
transverse diameter, and the distal articulation more sharply notched on the radial 
border. Me. IIT in Cynodesmus is shorter and lighter than in Canis latrans, but the 
bone is otherwise quite like the latter, especially the proximal end, while its length 
is about 12 mm. shorter than in Daphenodon and also considerably lighter. A second 
phalanx, which undoubtedly belongs with the type of Cynodesmus brachypus, is 
quite depressed, but its distal trochlea is concave from side to side and convex from 
in front backward, as in Canis. 
