SAGHATHERIIJM ANTIQUUM. 



Saghatherium antiquum, Andrews & Beadnell. 

 [Plate VI. fig. 6 ; Plate VII. figs. 4, 5.J 

 1902. Saghatherium antiquum, Andrews & Beadnell, loc. cit., jSg. 4. 



Type Specimen. — Portions of a skull, including a considerable part of the roof 

 and the maxillae, that of the right side containing the molar and premolar series 

 (PI. VII. figs. 4, 5); Geological Museum,' Cairo. 



The type species, with molar-premolar series measuring 5'7 cm. in length. 



Form. & Loc. — Fluvio-marine beds (Upper Eocene) : north of Birket-el-Qurun. 



Skull (PI. VII. figs. 4, 5). — From the portion of the skull-roof preserved, it can be 

 seen that there was a well-marked sagittal crest which bifurcated some distance behind 

 the orbits, the strong temporal ridges thus constituted running outwards and becoming 

 continuous with the hinder border of the very prominent supraorbital processes [so.p.). 

 The temporal ridges are borne on the parietals [pa.), the suture between those bones 

 and the frontals running in front of the ridges on the roof of the skull, and only 

 crossing them at the base of the supraorbital processes. In modern Hyraces this 

 suture is usually situated still more anteriorly, so that the whole or part of the supra- 

 orbital processes is formed by the parietals, a most unusual condition, towards which, 

 however, these Eocene forms thus show a distinct tendency. In the fossil the end 

 of the postorbital process is broken away on either side, so that it is not possible 

 to determine with certainty whether the orbit was closed behind or not; but the 

 probability is that it was, for not only is the broken end of the process of considerable 

 thickness, but there is on the jugal also the broken end of a postorbital process of 

 considerable size. The supraorbital region of the frontals is very broad and flat ; 

 it overhangs the orbit to a great extent as in Hyrax (Procavia). 



The floor of the orbit is formed mainly by the maxilla, but the stout jugal 

 extends forwards, forming its inferior border, and, as already mentioned, bore a 

 postorbital process, here broken away. The posterior border of the zygomatic process 

 of the maxilla arises just opposite the hinder lobe of the last molar. In Hyrax it is 

 further forwards, about opposite the front of the second molar. The hard palate 

 seems to have extended further back than in the recent forms, and reached the level 

 of the posterior end of the last molar ; in Hyrax it terminates about opposite the 

 end of the second molar. The palatine forms a considerable part of the hinder region 

 of the palate, and there is a pair of small posterior palatine foramina. The rest of 

 the skull is too fragmentary for description. 



Dentition (PI. VII. fig. 4). — The molars and premolars of the right side are in an 

 excellent state of preservation. Immediately in front ofpm. 1 is the broken base of a 

 two-rooted tooth, the canine (<?.), which, judging from other specimens, must have 

 been premolariform. Its hinder root is large and transversely elongated, the anterior 



