0-S THE CRANIUM OF AN EEINACEUS FROM (ENINGEX. 23 



4. Description of the Crantfm of a new Species of Erinacefs from 

 the Upper Miocene of (Eningen. By E. Ltdekker, Esq., B.A., 

 E.G.S., &c. (Read JsTovember 18, 1885.) 



[Plate II.] 



Among the collection of fossil remains purchased in 1871 by the 

 British Museum from the executors of the late Professor van Breda, 

 of Haarlem, was a small slab of limestone from the Upper Miocene 

 of Q^ningen, Switzerland, containing the ventral half of a small mam- 

 malian cranium, of which only the dorsal aspect was exposed. At 

 the time of writing part i. of the ' Catalogue of Eossil Mammalia 

 in the British Museum' (1885), I was unable to come to any 

 conclusion as to the affinity of the specimen in its then condition, 

 and it was therefore not entered. Shortly afterwards, however, Mr. 

 W. Davies, F.G.S., of the British Museum, thought that the speci- 

 men might be " developed ;" and by careful chiselling under his 

 direction the palatal surface was cleared, and revealed the whole of 

 the dentition of a species of Erinaceus in a most perfect state of 

 preservation. 



Before discussing the affinities of the fossil form, it may be as 

 well to give a brief notice of the extent and distribution of the genus. 

 The dental formula is I. |, C. [, Bm. |, M. | ; and as Dr. Dobson * 

 considers that the three upper premolars are respectively homo- 

 logous with the last three teeth of the typical series of four, they 

 will be termed pm. 2 , pm. 3, pm. 4 f. 



At the present day nineteen species are recognized by Dr. Dobson +, 

 which are distributed throughout Europe, Africa, and the greater 

 part of Asia. Of these, Erinaceus eiiropceus (which is considerably 

 larger than the majority of the other species) is an aberrant form, 

 differing from all the others in that the third upper incisor and the 

 second upper premolar have each but a single (instead of a double) 

 root, and exhibit marked peculiarities in the form of their crowns ; 

 in some instances the two roots of the upper canine have coalesced § 

 in this species. Two of the Indian species (^E. micropus and E, 

 pictus) are further distinguished by the minute size, simple struc- 

 ture, position, and caducous character of the upper pm. 3 ; while the 

 former is, again, differentiated by the absence of the jugal element of 

 the zygomatic arch \\. The African E. albiventris, on account of the 

 absence of the hallux, has been referred by some zoologists (in my 

 own opinion unnecessarily) to a separate genus. 



Turning to fossil forms, five species are recorded by Gervais in the 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 403. 



t By mauy writers these three teeth are termed first, second, and tbu-d pre- 

 molars. 



I Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed. vol. xv. p. 402 (1883). 

 § Vide Dobson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 403, fig. 10. 



II The Indian species are described by Anderson in the Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 

 vol. xlvii. pt. 2, pp. 95-211, pis. iii., iv., v., v.a (1878). 



