364 



MK. E,. LTDEKEEK ON YEETEBEATA 



31. Note on some Vektebe at a /rom the Eed Ceag. 

 By R. Lydekkee, Esq., BA., F.G.S., &c. (Read May 12, 1886.) 



The examination of certain specimens from the Eed Crag in the 

 collection of the British Museum, which have been already described 

 by other writers, and the recent acquisition by the same col- 

 lection of casts of a small series of remains from these deposits,, 

 which were collected by the Eev. Mr. Canham and are now in the 

 Ipswich Museum *, have enabled me to make some additions and 

 emendations to our knowledge of the vertebrate fauna of the Red 

 Crag which it appears desirable to notice collectively. 



HycBiia. — The remains of HycEna from the Red Crag hitherto de- 

 scribed comprise two upper and one lower third premolars, all of 

 which are referred by Lankester t to his H. antiqua, which was 

 founded on the specimen first obtained. This so-called species was 

 regarded as closely allied to the existing H. striata^ but the speci- 

 mens are really insufficient for specific diagnosis ; and it may be 

 remarked that it m, prima facie, exceedingly improbable that the 

 Crag Hysena should be distinct from all continental forms. The 

 occurrence of H. striata in the caverns of France has been deter- 

 mined by Gervais J, while Gaudry § remarks that the so-called H, 

 arvernensis, Cr. & Job., from the Upper Pliocene of the Auvergne 

 and the Yal d'Arno appears undistinguishable from the existing 

 species, although the name is still retained by Forsyth-Major ||. 

 In recording a specimen of the maxiUa of a Hyana from the Val 

 d'Arno in the ' British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Mammalia '^ , I 

 referred it unhesitatingly to H. striata ; but being uncertain as t,o 

 its exact age, I did not identify it with ff. arvernensis, and suggested 

 that it might be from the Pleistocene. 



The Ipswich CoILectiou contains the right upper carnassial of a 

 Hyama (fig. 1), which is quite undistinguishable from the correspond- 

 ing tooth of H. striata, and, from its age, may be safely referred to 

 H. arvernensis. That this tooth is specifically the same as H. antiqua 

 there is also no reasonable doubt ; and from the impossibility of 

 distinguishing it from pm. 4 of H. striata, I conclude, with Gaudry, 

 that H. arvernensis is probably identical with that species, since I 

 cannot find any point described which can be regarded as a specific 

 dijfference **. The slight difi'erences noted by Lankester in comparing 



* I have to express my thanks to Dr. J. E. Taylor, F.G.S., the Conservator of 

 the Ipswich Museum, for permission to bring these specimens to the Society's 

 notice. I am also indebted to Mr. Alfred Bell for some information as to the 

 locality and horizon of two of the specimens. 



t Quart. Joiirn. G-eol. Soc. vol. xxvi. pp. 511, 512 (1870). 



I Zool. et Pal. Fran9. 2nd ed. p. 241 =H. prisca. 

 § Anim. Foss. et Geol. de I'Attique, p. 103. 



II Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xli. p. 4 (1885). 

 ^ Part i. p. 88, no. M. 469 (1885). 



-^* This would lead to the inference that the British Museum Val d'Arno 

 specimen was probably obtained from the typical Upper Pliocene of that region. 



