F. L. Troxell — Fossil Ruminant from Texas. 479 



Art. XXXIY. — A Fossil Ruminant from Rock Creek, Texas, 

 Preptoceras mayfieldi sp. nov. ; by Edward L. Troxell. 



Among the very abundant fossil remains found, at Rock 

 Creek there was the skull of a ruminant, and possibly belong- 

 ing to it were an atlas and some rib fragments. Associated 

 with these bones were parts of Elephas, Mylodon, Auchenia 

 and Fquus, representing the fauna of the early Pleistocene. 



The skull resembles somewhat that of the ox, especially in 

 the general form and position of the horns, which come out in 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 1. Posterior view of skull of Preptoceras mayfieldi, sp. nov. Holotype, 

 Cat. No. 10920, Yale Museum ( x -25). 



the plane of the face, trending upward, then downward and 

 forward. At first it was taken to be the skull of a sheep, but 

 it is found to be very different. It is about one-half larger 

 than a skull of Ovis rockymontanus and the horns, which are 

 not so large, do not curve backward nor are thej set close 

 together. It is probably allied to a specimen from New 

 Mexico, viz : Liops zuniensis Gidley.* But of all known 

 skulls it resembles most that of Preptoceras sinclairi Furlong f 

 from the caves of California. It is, therefore, put under that 

 genus. 



The new species is named in honor of Mr. Gridley Mayfield, 

 on whose ranch the specimen was found. This is located 



*Proc. IT. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xxx, 1906, pp. 165-167. 

 fUniv. of Cal., Bull. "Dept. Geol., vol. iv, 1905, pp. 163-169. 



