12 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



species (Lutra reevesi), founding it on a right lower carnassial tooth which had 

 not cut the jaw, from the Norwich Crag of Branierton. 



As is natural from the habits of the animal, the remains of the otter are 

 scanty in caves, but more abundant in river-gravels and similar deposits. Marcel 

 de Serres, Dubrueil and Jeanjean 1 described and figured a lower jaw from 

 Lunel Viel, which they referred to a new species, and Croizet and Jobert 2 

 described bones from the Puy-de-Dome district. 



The only Post-Pliocene specimens referred to by Owen in his ' British 

 Fossil Mammals and Birds ' are from the peat and its associated marls of 

 Cambridgeshire, and belong to the Prehistoric rather than to the Pleistocene 

 fauna. Dawkins and Sanford 3 (18GG) stated that the only Pleistocene remains of 

 the otter with which they were acquainted were from Kent's Hole, Torquay, and 

 Banwell Cave, and from the brick-earth of Gray's Thnrrock, Essex. In Dawkins' 

 paper 1 on the "Distribution of the British Post-glacial Mammals" (1869) the 

 additional cave-localities of Durdham Down and Long Hole, Cower, were given, 

 with Ipswich, as a river deposit. The otter occurs rarely in the Langwith Cave. 



Scharff 5 recorded the otter from the Newhall Cave, co. Clare, this being the 

 first notice of its occurrence in Ireland in Pleistocene strata. 



111. DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON. 



The Mustelidae form a large and somewhat heterogeneous group of Carnivores, 

 and are grouped with the Ursidse and Procyonidas in the section Arctoidea. 



The cranial part of the skull tends to be considerably elongated and somewhat 

 sharply marked off from the facial portion. The glenoid cavity is relatively far 

 forward. The Mustelidse agree with the Felidae and Hysenidae, and differ from the 

 great majority of the Ursidse, Viverridae, and Canidae, in having no alisphenoid 

 canal. The auditory bulla is not as a rule much inflated. The palate is generally 

 considerably produced behind the last molars. The hamular process of the 

 pterygoid is prominent. The infra-orbital foramen is generally very large, and 

 the orbit communicates widely with the temporal fossa. The post-glenoid process 

 tends to curve over the mandibular condyle, and sometimes holds the mandible 

 attached to the cranium. 



The dental formula in the great majority of cases is i. f , c. -}-, pm. fz^, m. ^. In 



1 ' Pecherches Oss. humatiles Oavernes de Lunel Viel,' p. 70, pi. ii, figs. 14. 15. 



2 ' Oss. foss. Dept. Puy-de-D6me,' p. 89. 



:5 ' British Pleistocene Mammalia" (' Pal. Six-.,' 1866), pt. 1, p. xxii. 

 1 ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' xxv, 1869, p. 198. 

 5 ' Trans. Roy. Irish Acad.,' xxxiii, B. pt. 1, p. 41. 



