FROM THE BIVALIK HILLS. 133 



LuTKA PAL^iNDicA, Palc. et Cautl. et nob. 



A specimen of cranium (B. M. no. 37151), deficient in the zj'go- 

 matic arches, and another of the lower jaw (B. M. no. 37152) are 

 so named in the index to the unpublished plate L of the ' Fauna 

 Antiqua Sivalensis '*. The cranium shows the alveoli of the three 

 incisors and the canine (on each side), and of the three anterior false 

 molars (of the left side). The sectorial and the tubercular of this 

 side, as well as the lower carnassial, are in situ. 



In the number, form, and disposition of the teeth the fossil 

 agrees very closely with the living Indian Otter t ; but the skull of 

 the fossil is smaller, and the teeth proportionately larger. The brain- 

 case is broader and higher in the fossil than in its living represen- 

 tative. Eut the most characteristic feature in the fossil skull is the 

 form of the forehead. In the common as well as in the Indian 

 Otter the frontal narrows from behind the postorbital process, in 

 the shape of a triangle, up to its junction with the brain-case 

 proper ; but in the fossil the part between the postorbital processes 

 of the frontal and the cranial cavity is wider and is of uniform 

 breadth throughout, so as to be quadrangular instead of triangular. 

 In this respect the fossil resembles a peculiar form of Otter described 

 by Gray as Lutronectis % ; but the orbit of the latter is scarcely 

 defined behind. 



Lutra Bravardi (with which Gervais § and Pictet || incorporate 

 L. elevaris and L. clermontensis %) and L. cluhia **, especially the 

 latter, are considerably larger than the Sivalik fossil. The tuber- 

 cular is squarer in L. Bravardi than in either the living or the fossil 

 Indian Otter ft. L. affinis is very like the common European Otter 

 {L. vulgaris), and thus readily distinguished from the fossil under 

 examination Xt- Lutra Living 



palmndica. Indian Otter. 

 Length from the posterior extremity of the inch. inch, 

 basicranial axis to the anterior of in- 

 cisor 1, taken as modulus I'O 1*0 



Height of occiput from the top of foramen 



magnum 0-251 0-189 



Greatest breadth of the surface of brain- case 



opposite mastoid processes 0-587 0*466 



Minimum breadth of frontal behind it s post- 

 orbital processes 0-216 0*141 



Breadth of cranium at these processes 0-251 0-209 



Greatest height of lower jaw below carnassial 0-139 0-11 



* Pal. Mem. vol. i. p. 552. The specimens have been refigured in pi. xxvii. 

 (figs. 5 «& 7) of Pal. Mem. 



t The skull of the Indian Otter I have had for comparison comes from 

 Madras, B. M. no. 1668 a. 



X ' Catalogue of the Oarnivora,' p. 107. It may be noted that in the absence 

 of the contraction of the frontal behind the orbits, as well as the proportion- 

 ately greater capacity of the brain-oase, the fossil approaches the Polecats. 



§ Zool. et Pal. Fr. p. 243. || Traite de Pal. tom. i. p. 210. 



^ Blainv. Osteographie (gen. Mustela), p. 52, pi. xiv. 



** Blainv. op. cit. pi. xiv. tt Gervais, oj). cit. pi. xxvii. fig. 6. 



II Gervais, op. cit. p. 244. 



