HISTORY OF THE CARNIVORA 523 



convoluted than in the modern animals, and this, in turn, 

 denotes a lower grade of intelUgence. The Umb-bones were 

 Uke those of wolves, but the feet were quite different. In the 

 manus the first digit, or poUex, was much less reduced, though 

 considerably shorter than the other digits, which were not 

 in two symmetrical pairs, but were all of different lengths, 

 not closely appressed, but arranged in radiating fashion; the 

 metacarpals had not yet acquired the quadrate or trihedral 

 form, but were more oval in cross-section. The pes was more 



Fig. 256. — Skull of primitive " bsar-dog " {fDaphoenus fdinus). White River stage. 



(After Hatcher.) 



modernized, but had five digits, which is not true of any exist- 

 ing member of the family. The claws were thin and sharp 

 and were sUghtly retractile, a power which has been completely 

 lost in all the modern canids. Such an animal could hardly 

 have been preeminently cursorial. 



Out of the crowd of dog-like creatures in the John Day 

 OHgocene, it is not yet practicable to select one which is to 

 be taken as the ancestor of the Recent wolves through 

 ^Cynodesmus, nor can this be done with better assurance of 

 success in the White River, though the beginning {^Da-phoenus) 

 of the fbear-dogs in that formation probably closely represents 

 the ancestral stage sought for. It is likely that several of 



