270 



DOUGLASS — FOSSI L MAMMAL! A 



Part of the humerus of a cat, besides fragments of bones of one or two other animals, 

 are mixed with those of this specimen, so it is sometimes difficult to be sure just what 



ones belong with it. 



The teeth arc different from those of any known animal. Those of //yopotamus 

 resemble them, especially the molars; but those of the present genus have no anterior 

 intermediate " fifth" or "unpaired lobe," the protoconule. In this respect they are like 



Merycopotamus. 



With the material in hand the principal characters seem to be the following : 

 All the upper teeth with sharp cusps or crescents ; first 'premolar small ; premolars 

 increasing rapidly in size posteriorly, and composed of a simple compressed, cone and a cin- 

 gulum or cingulum-like cusp, which also increases in size backward ; molars high, square in 

 section, their length and breadth being nearly equal; occiput low; tarsus in the maw, 

 resembling that of Or cod on. 



Dentition. 



The only incisor preserved resembles the third of Hyopotamus, but it is much 

 smaller and proportionally much thinner. The outside of the crown, is uniformly con- 

 vex. The inner side has a low, broad median convexity, so that, though thin, the tooth 

 is thickest a little behind the middle and the edges are very thin. The anterior edge 

 projects a little beyond the root. 



Parts of two canines were found, the upper part of one and the lower part of the 

 other. They were supposed to belong with the other teeth, as they were found closely 

 associated with them. They are thin and sharp for an artiodactyl, yet not altogether 

 exceptional, and they are quite sharp and finely serrate on the posterior edge. These 

 characters, and the fact that part of a humerus of a cat was found with the other 

 bones, makes it doubtful to what animal these canines belong. But when one sees the 

 compressed character of the incisor and premolars and the sharpness of the apices of 

 the molar crescents, it does not seem improbable that the canines belong to the present 

 animal. The teeth are not more compressed than in Moschus, and not so long as in that 

 genus or Cervulus. The serrated edge is not entirely exceptional, as Marsh has observed 

 it in Elomeryx armatus (1894, p. 178, Pig. 3). The form of the tooth is not very closely 

 like that of any cat I have seen. The whole length of the anterior edge of the crown is 

 worn by contact with the lower canine. -This, I think, does not occur in any of the cat 

 tribe, as, at most, on account of the inner position of the lower canines and their oblique- 

 ness, only the base of the anterior part of the corresponding upper tooth could be 

 worn by contact. The relative position of these teeth was evidently similar to that in the 

 Peccary. 



