Cope.] 4d8 [ Ma y 19j 



The Classification of the Ungulate Mammalia. By E. D. Cope. 

 {Bead before the American Philosophical Society, May 19, 1882.) 



In the present essay the osseous system is chiefly considered, and of this, 

 the structure of the feet more than of any other part of the skeleton. The 

 ungulata are here understood to be the hoofed placental Mammalia with 

 enamel covered teeth, as distinguished from the unguiculate or clawed 

 and the mutilate or flipper limbed, and the edentate or enamelless, groups. 

 The exact circumscription and definition is not here attempted, though 

 probably the brain furnishes an additional basis of it in the absence of the 

 crucial, parietooccipital, calcarine fissures, etc. Suffice it to say that it is on 

 the whole a rather homogeneous body of mammalia, especially distin- 

 guished as to its economy by the absence of forms accustomed to an 

 insectivorous and carnivorous diet, and embracing the great majority of 

 the herbivorous types of the world. 



The internal relations of this vast division are readily determined by 

 reference to the characters of the teeth and feet, as well as other less im- 

 portant points. I have always insisted that the place of first importance 

 should be given to, the feet, and the discovery of various extinct types has 

 justified this view. The predominant significance of this part of the 

 skeleton was first appreciated by Owen, who defined the orders Perisso- 



