PETERSON : NEW CARNIVORES FROM MIOCENE OF WESTERN NEBRASKA 257 
Restoration oF Daphewnodon swperbus. 
(Plates LX XXIII and LXXXIV.) 
The unusually well preserved and symmetrical bones of the type of Dapheno- 
don superbus have caused comparatively little trouble in correctly articulating the 
different parts of the skeleton. ‘he restoration has been very well executed by Mr. 
Serafino Agostini. The mounted skeleton furnishes many additional features of the 
animal which only in this way can be fully appreciated. 
The position of the head is as high in relation to the horizontal line of the 
vertebral column as the animal ordinarily held it in life. The long neural spines 
on the cervical vertebree further indicate that the animal probably carried the head 
rather low. The curvature of the neck at the junction of the thorax is gentle, and 
the position of each dorsal vertebra increases in height until the lumbar region is 
reached, where a sudden downward curvature again takes place, not unlike that in 
the recent tiger. The twelfth and thirteenth dorsals have no facets for a tubereulum 
of the ribs as in Felis tigris and it is quite doubtful whether the eleventh dorsal of 
the present form carried a tubercular facet for the rib as the transverse process is 
poorly developed. The thorax was on the whole quite small, which is also charac- 
teristic of the Oligocence genus. The heads of the ribs of the left side (except the 
eleventh or twelfth) are all represented, while the shafts are restored after the more 
completely preserved ribs of No. 1589a. On the left side the ribs are poorly pre- 
served, there being present only the heads and portions of the shafts of seven. 
The fore limbs display a close similarity to those in Daphenus. The deltoid 
and supinator ridges of the humerus are prominent, the former low down on the 
shaft, indicating the downward extent of the heavy muscles, while the development 
of the latter indicates the power of supination of the manus. Though the forearm 
is proportionally longer than in the latter genus the feet are remarkably little 
advanced, being short and broad, the pollex little reduced, and the position of the 
phalanges sharply angled asin the felines, but proportionally somewhat shorter than 
in Daphenus. The power of retractility of the unguals was nearly as great as in the 
older form and no doubt still served the purpose of assisting in catching and holding 
the prey. 
As has already been stated the posterior portion of the pelvis, portions of the 
femora, and the proximal ends of the tibiae were unfortunately weathered out and 
disintegrated when the specimen was found, but from other material the compara- 
tive measurements were made, and the proportions, as they are in the skeleton repre- 
sented on Pls. UXXXIII-LX XXIV, are thought to be approximately correct. The 
