The Relationship of the Premaxilhi in Bears. 



169 



äste überall in der Mittellinie zusammen". Largest in Dasypus, in 

 which there is a small thin lower branch, it is smallei- in Myrme- 

 cophaga the beginning of an iippei-, in addition to the lower, is found 

 in Brady pus. „Beim Ai ist auch dieser fast ganz vei-sch wunden, und. 

 die beiden ganz verwachsenen Zwischenkieferbeine bilden nur eine 

 rautenförmige, mit keinem Knochen fest verbundene, voi- dem Ende 

 der G-aumenteile des Oberkiefers liegende quere Platte, die im ^^'esent- 

 lichen mit dem untern Zwischenkieferbeine 

 des Schnabeltiers auffallend übereinkommt." 



Meckel also mentions tlie fact that lie 

 found a roundish four cornered bone in 

 front of the nasal in the Unau (Clioloepus). 

 „Hier ist daher auf ähnliche Weise wie 

 beim Schnabeltier der Zwischenkiefer, nur 

 mit dem Unterschiede geteilt, dass bei 

 diesem der Säugetiertypus mehr befolgt ist." 



Meckel refers to the attenuated cha- 

 racter of the Premaxilla in the Carnivora 

 and the Didelphidae; Owen also later refers 

 to the same fact. The smallness of the 

 upper or facial branch is most to be re- 

 marked. 



The felidae, although they present varying conditions in the level 

 of the summit of the naso frontal suture, which, in Leo and pardalis, 

 is on the same level as the maxillo frontal summit, and is much diffe- 

 rent in the Tiger — the Cat, in this, resembles the latter rather than 

 the former, — appear all to have a considerable interval between 

 the frontals and the Premaxillae. 



The Canidae present in the matter of the premaxillae some 

 points of interest, this group is polyphyletic as Professor Wilhelm 

 Krause reminds me, and this accounts for a difference which msij 

 be due to imperfect convergence. In some forms the Premaxillae 

 reach much higher, indeed almost touch, in C. Aureus, the frontals. 

 In C. Vulpes the approach is closer than in C. familiaris and I think 



