Marsh Collection, Peabody Museum. 283 



" I. Creodonta Primitiva. No specialized carnassial ; trituber- 

 cular upper and lower molars ; shear rudimentary or absent. 

 Claws unknown. 



Oxyelcenidce. Includes some genera with Lemuroid affinities 

 in the dentition. 



II. Creodonta Adaptiva. Carnassial, when present, on p.^ 

 and m. T . Claws, where known, of modern type and carried 

 probably more or less free of the ground. Scapholunar-centrale 

 early uniting (podials tending towards true Carnivore type). 



1. Post-carnassial teeth disappearing Paleonictidm. 



2. Post-carnassial teeth becoming tubercular Viv err av idee. 



3. No carnassials ; molars becoming flat-crowned ; 



premolars disappearing ._ Arctocyonidce. 



III. Creodonta Inadaptiva. Carnassial, when present, not on 

 p.^ and m. T . Claws, where known, blunt, hoof-like, resting on 

 the ground. No tendency of union of the carpals (podials 

 tending toward Ungulate type). 



1. Carnassials m.-J- shearing teeth _ Oxycenidce. 



2. Carnassials m.f shearing teeth Hywnodontidce. 



3. No carnassials; teeth with high, round, blunted 



cusps; upper molars tritubercular; lower 



molai s premolariform MesonychidceP 



This classification is of course based upon the older concep- 

 tions of the limitations of the group, and differs materially 

 from that herein proposed. For example, the Palseonictidae 

 and Viverravidse have been removed to the Carnassidentia, the 

 reasons for which have been fully set forth on a preceding page. 

 This leaves only the single family Arctocyonidae in Matthew's 

 group "Creodonta Adaptiva." This family, as has already 

 been suggested, stands much nearer to the carnivorous Marsu- 

 pials in the organization of the feet than to any Carnassident. 

 The union of the scaphoid and centrale, the marked tendency 

 to opposability of both pollex and hallux, the character of the 

 fibulo-astragalar articulation, as well as the compressed, curved, 

 and pointed claws, are almost exactly paralleled in the case of 

 the living Dasyures. Moreover, it is highly probable that this 

 family will be found to be further characterized by the extra- 

 orbital extension of the lachrymal and the double condylar 

 foramen. In the lio-ht of these facts neither the ^enus nor the 

 family can be regarded as having any very close affinities with 

 the Carnassidentia. 



In this connection, it is important to state that Cope, in his 

 description* of the fragmentary skeletal material of Glcenodon 

 ferox at his disposal, compared it carefully with the carnivor- 

 ous Marsupials Didelphys, Sarcqpkilus, and Thylacynus ; he 

 pointed out a number of similarities of structure to these forms 



* Tertiary Vertebrata, 1884, p. 330. 



