MAMMALIA. 



No. 5. Dryopitheciis Fontani, Lartet. 



Lower Jaw, with pedestal. Of this 

 extinct Monkey, Sir Charles Lyell states 

 " that in anatomical structure, as well as in 

 stature, the D. came nearer to man than 

 any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, 

 before known to zoologists." Prof. Owen, 

 however, arrives at a different conclusion ; 

 and the generally received opinion is, that 

 the D. stood intermediate between the Gib- 

 bon and Semnopithecus. It was therefore 

 far removed from the human type, for the Quadrumana recede from man in the 

 following order, making cranial character the test : Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orang, 

 Gibbon. The canines are less developed than in the Gorilla, and in this 

 respect the D. makes a nearer approach to Man. The fore part of the coronoid 

 process is slightly convex, as in the Gibbon ; in Man, the Gorilla and Chimpan- 

 zee, it is concave. This interesting fossil was discovered by M. Fontan, in 1856, 

 in the fresh water (upper) Miocene at Saint Gaudens, Southern France, and is 

 preserved in the Museum of the Garden of Plants, Paris. Price, $2.25. 



Order 3 — Carnivora. 



All the Carnivores have incisors, canines and molars — the canines 

 being always longer than the other teeth, and showing at a glance the 

 nature of their appointed food. The molars graduate from a trenchant 

 (as in the Cat) to a tuberculate form (as in the Bear) in proportion as 

 the food deviates from one strictly of flesh to one of a more miscellane- 

 ous kind. The more the animal feeds on living prey, the less numerous 

 the molars. The Felidse have f -| premolars, and | i molars ; the Ca- 



nidse have p | !, m -| f ; the Ursidse p ■£ -£, m 



The molars of the 



Insectivores are studded with conical points ; those of fruit-eating Bats 

 have flattened crowns. Clavicles are generally rudimentary or wanting ; 

 but Bats and Insectivores have them well developed, as also broad scap- 

 ulae and keeled sternums, the former for flight, the latter for digging 

 in the soil. 



The fossil bones of Carnivores are found principally in caves and 

 fissures. The Digitigrades first appeared in the Eocene age, — the 

 Palasecyon from the Plastic Clay of England and France being one of 

 the first of the whole order. A forerunner of the Plantigrades appeared 

 in the Upper Eocene in the Amphicyon ; but the Plantigrades proper 

 did not exist prior to the Miocene Period. The amphibious Carnivores 

 (Seals) have not been found below the Miocene. The earliest represen- 



