14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAfiNER FREE 



An effort has been made to recover them, but thus far without success. 



The Ocala skull compared with the plaster cast of that of the Machai- 

 rodiis neogaeus of Brazil, preserved in the Natural History Museum of 

 Paris, shows a close resemblance, but exhibits differences which are perhaps 

 sufficient to indicate another species, and in this view the name of Machai- 

 rodus jloridaniis would seem to be appropriate. 



The Ocala skull is rather more than an inch less in its chief measure- 

 ments than that of the M. neogaejis and the zygoma is actually of greater 

 depth and is flatter on its outer face. The alveoli in the specimen are those 

 for the incisors, the canine and for two molars : — a premolar and the succeed- 

 ine sectorial tooth. A tubercular molar had been shed and its alveolus is 

 obliterated. 



The canine alveolus measures 41 mm. fore and aft, and 20 mm. trans- 

 versely, and would therefore accommodate a tooth nearly as large as that of 

 the Machairodiis ncogaais, represented by Dr. Burmeister in figure 8, plate 

 IX., of his description of that animal, found in the Argentine Republic* 

 The hiatus back of the canine alveolus is 16 mm.; and that in advance is 

 considerably smaller than in M. neogaeus, indicating a proportionately 

 smaller inferior canine tooth. 



The alveolus of the sectorial molar is 36 mm. fore and aft, and would 

 thus indicate a considerably smaller tooth than that of M. neogaeus as 

 represented in the plate of Dr. Burmeister. 



In comparison with the skull of the Bengal Tiger the cranium of the 

 fossil has nearly the same size and proportions. The temporal fossae are of 

 much greater depth, but proportionately of less width, as the zygomae are 

 not so prominent laterally. The posterior root of the zygoma is deeper 

 and its anterior surface more vertical. 



The mastoid process, very much larger than in the Tiger, appears as a 

 conspicuous fore and aft compressed cylindroid process directed obliquely 

 downward and forward to the outer side and extending below the audi- 

 tory bulla. It is horizontally truncated and transversely notched at the 

 lower extremity. From its greater prolongation and direction the archway 

 to the auditory meatus is of much greater vertical depth than in the Tiger, 

 and instead of expanding is contracted below. 



The paramastoid process is a pyramidal tuberosity behind the base of 

 the former and of the auditory bulla, tapering horizontally inward to the 

 basi-occipital. 



The auditory bulla is fore and aft laterally compressed oval. Its anterior 

 extremity is impressed with a pit just behind the entrance of the carotid canal. 



The neural foramina at the base of the cranium and those of the sphenoid 

 bone directed toward the orbit have about the same character and relative 

 position as in the Tiger. The median part of the cranial basis is much 



•Description Physique de la Republique Argentine ; Mammiferes, 1881. 



