Cfjarles & an& JWarp ^aux aHalcott &eaeatcl) Jfund 



THE RELATIONSHIPS OF QUEMISIA GRAVIS 

 (RODENTIA: 7HEPTAXODONTIDAE) 



By CLAYTON E. RAY 



Associate Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology 

 U. S. National Museum 

 Smithsonian Institution 



(With One Plate) 



The large Hispaniolan caviomorph Quemisia gravis was described 

 by G. S. Miller, Jr. (1929a, pp. 22-25; pi. 4, figs. 2, 2a) on the 

 basis of a fragmentary immature right mandibular ramus (the 

 type, U.S.N. M. 1 253175), a fragment of an upper incisor, and 

 a partial femur, all from caves near St. Michel de L'Atalaye in 

 north-central Haiti. To these Miller added later in the same year 

 (1929b, pp. 10-11, pi. 2, fig. 3) a distal half of a femur and the 

 proximal end of an ulna, both from a cave at Boca del Infierno 

 on the southern shore of Bahia de Samana, Dominican Republic. 

 These five fragments constitute the entire known material of 

 Quemisia, and of them only the jaw is of much value in determin- 

 ing the affinities of the genus. 



In the initial description and subsequently — insofar as it has 

 been noticed at all — Quemisia has been associated closely with Elas- 

 modontomys. G. M. Allen, the only author aside from Miller who 

 has done more than incorporate Quemisia into a survey or check- 

 list, stated (1942, p. 128) that Schreuder's (1933) specimens of 

 Amblyrhiza "indicate that the animal was closely allied to the 'Quemi' 

 of Santo Domingo, with essentially the same enamel pattern of 

 the molars but with a relatively longer rostrum. . . . The animal 

 must have been a giant in comparison with the 'Quemi'." 2 How- 



1 U.S.N.M. stands for United States National Museum, M.C.Z. for Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, and A.M.N.H. for American Museum of Natural 

 History. 



*The generic name Quemisia reflects Miller's supposition that the animal 

 was the "Quemi" of Oviedo, whose brief description of the animal not actually 

 seen by him was quoted by MacLeay (1829, p. 275) and by Miller (1929b, 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 149, NO. 3 



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