Marsh Collection, Peabody Museum. 341 



actual convergence of the two groups. If the Yiverravidse 

 were the forerunners of the civets, which appears from 

 present evidence to be exceedingly probable, then the dogs and 

 civets have had a common origin, as has been so frequently 

 insisted upon by Scott. 



Vulpavus Marsh. 



Vulpes, a fox ; and avus, a grandfather. Amer, Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. xi, p. 

 124, Aug., 1811. Miacis Cope (in part). Paleont., Bull., No. 3, Aug. 7, 1872, p. 2; 

 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, p. 470, 1872: Tertiary Vertebrata, 1884, p. 301. Vul- 

 pavus Wortman and Matthew, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., June, 1899, p. 118. 



A group of small dogs limited in their vertical distribution, so 

 far as at present known, to the Bridger Horizon. They are 

 characterized by having the dental formula I. f, C. \, Pm. |-, M. -f , 

 with the relative proportions of the lower molars nearly 

 the same as in the modern genus Ganis. The antero-external 

 angle of the first superior, and to a less degree that of the second 

 superior molar, is drawn out, and produced into more or less of a 

 cutting blade. The external cusps are unequal in size, the ante- 

 rior being the larger. The hind foot is pentadactyle, the astraga- 

 lus little grooved, and the femur has a third trochanter. The 

 humerus has a powerful deltoid crest and supinator ridge, and 

 there is a large entepicondylar foramen. The articulations of the 

 lumbar vertebrae are not complex as in some Creodonts but plane 

 as in most Carnivores. The claws are compressed, sharp pointed, 

 and unfissured. The carpus is unknown. 



Vulpavus palustris Marsh. 



Professor Marsh, in describing the remains upon which this 

 genus and species were primarily established, included a por- 

 tion of a right superior maxillary, carrying the fourth pre- 

 molar and the roots of the three succeeding molars. Since 

 this specimen agrees so perfectly in every respect with a 

 species of the genus Sinopa Leidy, and differs in such impor- 

 tant characters from the accompanying 

 molar, it may be confidently excluded 

 from any further consideration in this 

 connection. The type, figure 1, consists 

 of a first superior molar tooth of the 

 right side, with the antero-external angle 

 missing ; otherwise the crown of the 

 tooth is in a perfect state of preserva- Figure l— Vulpavus 

 tion. The specimen indicates an animal palustris Marsh; first 

 considerably smaller than the common Eed X^SSS °3S! 

 Fox with which Professor Marsh compared (Type.) 

 it in his original description. The composi- 

 tion of the tooth crown, and the arrangement of the component 

 cusps and ridges indubitably stamp it as belonging to a mem- 



