182 ten yeaks' progress in vertebrate paleontology 



Carnivora 



MATERIAL 



The additions to our knowledge of American fossil Carnivora have 

 been very large in the last decade. This is especially true of the Eocene 

 Carnivora, not so much in number and variety as in the more complete 

 knowledge of skull and skeleton. 



• A decade ago we were acquainted with the skull and skeleton of four 

 Eocene Carnivora- — Pachyaena, Mesonyx, Oxycena, and PatriofeUs. The 

 remaining genera were known only from the dentition, and in most cases 

 very little of that. Wortman's studies of the Eocene Carnivora of the 

 Marsh Collection and the explorations and studies of the American 

 Museum have added 14 genera to the list of those known from skull and 

 more or less complete skeletons, while the number of new genera has 

 been very little increased. Our knowledge of the Eocene Carnivora is 

 thus placed upon a much firmer and more permanent foundation than 

 would be possible with fragmentary material. 



Most of this new material is from the Middle and Upper Eocene. 

 Our knowledge of Lower, and especially of Basal Eocene, Carnivora is 

 still based upon fragmentary data, and a great deal of it provisional. 



The Oligocene Carnivora have also been placed upon a much more 

 satisfactory footing during the last ten years. The principal types are 

 represented by skulls or complete skeletons in the New York, Pitts- 

 burgh, Chicago, and other museums, several of which have been mounted. 

 The published studies and descriptions, however, are by no means as full 

 and complete as might be desired, and we are still largely dependent 

 upon the already classic studies of Cope and Scott. 



Almost nothing was known a decade ago of the Lower ]\Iiocene Car- 

 nivora, and comparatively little of the Middle and Upper Miocene. 

 Great additions have since been made to the number of known types, and 

 much of the new material has been remarkably complete. The finely 

 preserved skeleton of Phhiocyon affords the missing link between the rac- 

 coons and the primitive dogs; the splendid skeleton of Daphrrnodon, 

 recently described by Peterson, connects the aberrant Amphicyonids with 

 the Oligocene DapJicenus, while a remarkable and unsuspected variety of 

 Mustelids is represented by skeletons and more fragmentary material in 

 the Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, Amherst, Yale, and Lincoln Mu- 

 seums. A great diversity of dogs is also represented by skulls and skele- 

 .tons in one or another of these museums. The Pliocene Felidae are still 

 almost unknown. 



These Miocene Carnivora are now known from a great amount of 



