424 THE BEAR TRIBE 



many Bear-like features in its organisation. The feet, for instance, 

 were plantigrade and five-toed. The ulna and the radius are 

 specially compared with the same bones in the Bear tribe. The 

 skull on the other hand is as distinctly Dog-like in form. The 

 molars are large, broad, and crushing, and Bear-like. The largest 

 known species, A. gigantcus, is of about the size of the Brown 

 Bear. Amphicyon is a Pliocene genus. Eocene and allied to 

 it is Pseudamphicyon. This genus has, like Amjjliicyon, the 

 complete dentition of forty-four teeth. In the Amphicyoninae 

 generally the feet are five -toed, the humerus has an entepi- 

 condylar foramen and the femur a third trochanter. The upper 

 molars are large. 



The closely allied and American genus Daphaemis has also 

 plantigrade feet, and has in its structure many reminiscences of 

 the Creodonts. So, too, has the Eocene Vintacyon. 



C'ynodesinus is closely allied to Cynodictis. It has ancient 

 features combined with quite modern ones. The skull is 

 described as being Creodont-like, but the dentition is that of the 

 microdont modern Dogs. In accordance with its age the cerebral 

 convolutions of this Dog are much simpler than in existing Dogs, 

 and the hemispheres do not cover the cerebellum so much. 



The Bear-like Carnivora or Arctoidea. — That division of 

 the Carnivora which is typically represented by the Bears em- 

 braces three recent families, which are united by a number of 

 characters. These Carnivora are always plantigrade or nearly so. 

 They have nearly always five toes. The claws are not retractile, 

 or at most semi-retractile as in the I'anda. In the skull the 

 tympanic bulla is often depressed, and is not so globular and 

 obvious as in the Cats. Its cavity is not divided by a septum. 

 The paroccipital processes are not applied to it. The carnassial 

 tooth is less emphasised in this group than in the Cats. 



These characters, however, have to be used with caution, as 

 they are hardly universally aji]ilicable. A fairly typical Arctoid 

 bulla is seen in such a form as Cercoleptrs. The bulla itself is a 

 little more swollen than in Ursics, but it is flattened off in the 

 same way towards the bony meatus. The paroccipital processes, 

 slightly developed, are at a distance of i-inch from the posterior 

 margin of the bulla. In the Eaccoon the bullae are much more 

 swollen, and the paroccijjital processes are closer to them. In 

 the Marbled Polecat, Pittoriv.s snrmaticus., the bullae are fairly 



