228 PEOF. W. BOYD DAWKrjfS ON AILTJRTJS ANGLICIJS. 



18. On AiLURUs AXGLiCFS, a new Carnivojre from the E,ed Ceag. 

 By W. Boyd Dawkii^s, P.E.S., Professor of Geology and Palae- 

 ontology in Owens College. (Eead January 25, 1888.) 



§ 1. Introductory. 



§ 2. Description and Comparison witli Ailiirus fidgens. 



I 3. Measurements. 



§ 4. Range of Ailicrus in Space and in Time. 



[Plate X.] 



§ 1. IlN'TEODTJCTOEY. 



Ix the fine collection of fossils from the Crag of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, presented to the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical 

 Society at Tork by Dr. Eeed, is a battered and water-worn spe- 

 cimen, which is of singular interest, because it carries the range of 

 one of the most restricted of the genera of the Oriental Province far 

 to the west and to the north of its present habitat. It is a small 

 fragment of the right lower jaw, with the last true molar in position, 

 found in the Hed Crag of Pelixstowe, the rest of the ramus and the 

 angle and articular and coronoid processes being broken away (see 

 figs. 1 and 2). 



§ 2. DeSCEIPTIOIS' AlfD COMPAEISOX WITH AlLTJETJS EITLGENS. 



After a long and careful study, I find that the lower jaw in ques- 

 tion differs in a marked degree from all the European fossil Car- 

 nivores, and presents no important points of difference when com- 

 pared with the series of jaws of recent Ailurus in the British Museum. 



The last true molar in the fossil is implanted in the jaw by two 

 fangs, the anterior being the smaller, and supporting the anterior 

 cusps, A and n of figures 1, 2, 3, 4. The multicuspid crown is com- 

 posed of three small, obtusely pointed cusps, a, b, g of figs. 1, 3, and 4, 

 on the outer side, while the inner (figs. 2 and 3) is occupied by the 

 large cusp d and a smaller hind cusp p, connected by a line of low 

 tubercles, from which the enamel has been stripped. The outer 

 series of cusps is separated from the inner by a shallow longitudinal 

 groove (fig. 3) traversing the crown nearer the inner than the outer 

 side, and causing the inner cusps to be narrower than the outer. 

 They are also the higher. The crown is also divided by two trans- 

 verse valleys into three lobes (figs. 3, 4), of which the anterior, a, d, 

 is the higher and larger. In aU these points the fossil agrees with 

 the Hying Ailurus (figs. 5, 6, and 7), with the exception that the 

 longitudinal depression is not so strongly marked in the former. 



Kor are differences of any value to be noted on a comparison of 

 the fossil specimen with the recent teeth cusp by cusp. The antero- 

 outer cusp a of figs. 3 and 4 occupies the greater part of the front 

 lobe, and has in front a small talon or tubercular cingulum. In five 

 specimens of living Ailurus the cusp a is in the same relative posi- 

 tion (figs. 6 and 7), and a tubercular cingulum or slight talon is 

 traceable in four. The accessory cusp a' of figs. 3 and 4 is present in 



