122 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



But a more marked difference between the fossil and living 

 crania, is in relation to the little molar situated immediately 

 behind the canine, both above and below, and to the first of 

 the molars in the series of the upper jaw. The little molar 

 aforesaid is never wanting in the living bears at any age, and 

 has never yet been found in the fossil of the large species, 

 young or old, in the upper jaw. It exists, however, in the 

 cranium of the inferior species lately described by M. Goldfuss; 

 nor is it always wanting in the lower jaw of the other. The 

 other difference regards the second little molar in the upper 

 jaw, which, in the living bears, is immediately situated in front 

 of the antepenultimate, and forms, with it, a continued series. 

 Its alveolus has been found by the Baron but twice, in frag- 

 ments of craniums from Gaylenreuth and Sundwich ; but there 

 appears no vestige of it in any other fragment, nor in any of 

 the entire craniums seen by the Baron, or any body else. 

 From this he concludes, that these bears had usually but three 

 cheek-teeth above, in a continued series, and but thirty teeth 

 in all ; the living bears have generally thirty- six^ and some- 

 times forty. 



Still, however, the circumstance of these little teeth being 

 occasionally found at all, seems to prove that the specific cha- 

 racter of these bears was, that they lost these teeth early, not 

 that they wanted them altogether. 



The most common cranium found in the caverns having 

 decidedly all the generic characters, and being in perfect cor- 

 respondence with the structure of the teeth, all that remained 

 was the determination of the species to which these craniums 

 belonged. These species were at least two in number. 



The first is characterized by a prominent and convex chafFron, 

 a strong elevation of the forehead above the root of the nose, 

 and two convex prominences on this same forehead, while no 

 bear has so flat a forehead as the polar, to which, as we have 

 seen, the fossil has been absurdly compared. 



These crania are also remarkable for the great projection 



