FELIS SPELAA. 143 
CHAPTER XV. 
Limp Bones oF tHE Wuetp. PI. XXII. 
CONTENTS. 
§ 1. Description. § 2. Measurements. 
§ 1. Deseription—M. Gervais, in his ‘ Zoologie et Paléontologie Frangaise,”' states 
that M. de Serres and his coadjutors in the work’ on the fossil mammals of Lunel Viel 
have figured and described bones as leonine, which he considers to belong to young 
Felis spelea, “ before it had lost its milk teeth,’ and that Dr. Schmerling had indicated 
the presence of lion in the Belgian caves “without giving more certain proof of its 
existence.” The bones from Lunel Viel (exclusive of the head) consist of the sacrum, the 
proximal half of a femur, both of which are figured, and an ulna that is only described ; 
while those from Belgium consist of a nearly entire pelvis, and a perfect radius and ulna. 
All these, however, seem to be of by no means so young an age as M. Gervais 
supposed. In the figures given by M. de Serres” and Dr. Schmerling,’ there is no 
trace of lines of separation between the sacral vertebrae ; while in a third sacral that passed 
through our hands, and is now in the Taunton Museum, and which had belonged to an 
animal very much larger than the average-sized Lion, the anchylosis was not yet completed. 
It is clear, therefore, that the former must have belonged to older animals than the latter. 
In our figures also of the radius and tibia (Pls. II, fig. 1, XTX, 1, 1’), the anchylosis is 
imperfect, so that the proximal epiphysis is lost in each case, although the full size and 
proportions have been reached. The limb bones from Belgium and Lunel Viel present 
epiphyses firmly anchylosed to the shaft, and strongly marked muscular ridges, and 
they therefore belonged to not merely full grown but to tolerably aged animals. 
In Britain we have met with several bones of the speleean whelp from the caves of 
1 Edition 1859, p. 227. 
2 «Oss. Foss. de Lunel Viel,’ pl. viii, figs. 15, 16, p. 107. 
3 «Oss. Foss. de Liége,’ tom. ii, pl. xix, figs. 1, 2, p. 90. 
