280 PEOF. W. EOTD DAWKIXS O^S AILTJEUS AIs'GLICrs. 



From these measurements it is clear that the Ailurus from the 

 Crag was a larger and more powerful animal than any of the recent 

 Ailun in the British lluseum. 



§ 4. The Eak-ge of Ailtjetjs in Space and is Time. 



The living Ailurus^ the "Wah" or "Panda," is a carnivore 

 belonging to the Arctoidea, and standing, according to Plower*, 

 between the Ursidae and Procyonidae. It is, according to Hodgson t, 

 of exceedingly restricted range, being found in the sub-Himalayas, 

 in which it lives in the deserts, between 7000 and 13,000 feet 

 above the sea, ranging northwards on the flanks of the mountains 

 as far as the forests extend, in Thibet, Xepaul, Sikkim, and Bhotan. 

 It is described by Anderson J as inhabiting the high and dry country 

 to the north-east of Darjeeling §. It ranges also as far to the east as 

 Yunnan ||. 



The discovery of the lower jaw described above extends the 

 range of the genus, restricted at the present time to high altitudes 

 in the regions north and east of India, to the shores of western 

 Europe in the Pliocene age, and ofi'ers new evidence in support 

 of the view ^ that the Pliocene ]^Iammalia of Europe are closely 

 related to those now living in the far East, in the Oriental Eegion. 

 Of the associated genera found in the Eed Crag, four — Ailurus, 

 Tapirus {irriscus), Cervus {suttonensis), and Rliinoceros (Schleierma- 

 cTieri) — are represented by living forms in the Oriental Eegion, while 

 two extinct genera, Eipparion and Hycenarctos, are common to the 

 Pliocenes of India and Britain. From these facts I should conclude 

 that the Oriental Eegion has offered a secure place of refuge to some 

 of the Pliocene genera, in which they have survived the changes 

 in their surroundings that have caused them to disappear from Europe 

 and the rest of Asia. 



EXPLA]!^ATION OF PLATE X. 



Fig. 1. Ailurus aiiglicus, Dawkins, right lower jaw, outer side. Nat. size. 



2. The same, inner side. 



3. The same, molar tooth, m. 2, surface of crown. X 2. 



4. The same, m. 2, outer surface. X2. 



5. Ailurus fulgens, F. Cuv., lower jaw, outer side. IS'at. size. 



6. The same, molar tooth, ^72, surface of crown. X2. 



7. The same, molar tooth, m. 2, outer surface. X 2, 



* Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 37, 1870, p. 752 ; Encyclop. Britann. 

 Article Mammalia ; Section Arctoidea ; Fam. 1, MustelidcB ; Fam. 2, Procyo- 

 nidcB; Fam. 3, Aihcrida; Fam. 4, Ursidce. 



t B. H. Hodgson. Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. xvi. p. 1113 (1847). 



+ J. Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, pp. 278, 408: 1871, p. 561. 



§ For other information see Mivart, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 135, and 

 Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 769. 



II Anderson 'Anatomical and Zoological Eesults of the Yunnan Expedi- 

 tions,' Introd. p. xx. For this reference to its eastern range I am indebted 

 to the Eeferee, 



•[ Dawkins, ' Early Man in Britain,' pp. 79, 89. 



