BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



VOL. 24, PP. 247-252 JUNE 9, 1913 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



KELATIONSHIP OF THE TUPAIID^E AND OF EOCENE 

 LEMTJKS, ESPECIALLY NOTHARCTUS l 



BY WILLIAM K. GREGORY 



(Presented before the Paleontological Society December 30, 1912) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 247 



Tupaiid osteology and relationships 248 



Entomolestes an Eocene Tupaiid 249 



Notharctus an Eocene lemur 250 



Conclusions 252 



Introduction 



When my friend Mr. C. W. Beebe was in Borneo he made persistent 

 efforts to secure for me specimens of the rare pen-tailed tree-shrew 

 (Ptilocercus lowii). Failing in this, he obtained the loan of a skin and 

 skeleton of this animal from the Rajah of Sarawak, and these he has very 

 kindly intrusted to me for study and description. 



Ptilocercus and its ally, Tupaia, together constituting the family 

 Tupaiidae of the suborder Menotyphla, are of peculiar interest, because 

 they appear to bridge over to some extent the gap that separates I n- 

 sectivores from Primates. They are arboreal in habit, and Tupaia is 

 said to be lively, active, and squirrel-like, both in appearance and in habit. 



Certain anatomical resemblances shown by Tupaia to the Lemurs have 

 been noted from time to time by various authors, but until recently the 

 Tupaiids have been studied far less thoroughly than other families of 

 Insectivores. In 1910 I published an analysis of the osteology of Tupaia 

 and of other Menotyphla and summarized the evidence for the relation- 

 ship of the Tupaiidao with the Primates. 2 In the same year Dr. Walter 

 Kaudern, 3 of Stockholm, observed many resemblances between Tupaia 



' Manuscript received by the Secretary of the Paleontological Society January LI, mi:?. 

 a The orders of Mammals, Bull. A. M. N. IT., vol. 27, pp. 268-285, 821-822. 

 8 Uelier einige Aehnlichkelten zwlschen Tupaja und den Balbaffen. Aunt. Am., :?7. 

 Bd. No. 21, 22, pp. 561-573. 



(247) 



