421 Thorpe — Some Tertiary Camivora in 



to our knowledge of the time and space distribution of 

 the forms herein described. Some of the specimens form 

 the basis of new species, while others apparently afford 

 evidence of transitional stages between certain well 

 defined faunal landmarks. The majority of the genera 

 are confined either to Oligocene or Miocene strata, but 

 it is very probable that in some instances the Lower Pli- 

 ocene has contributed a small quota of forms, as will be 

 explained below. 



The John Day carnivore material in the Marsh Collec- 

 tion has been described separately, while nearly all of the 

 European specimens belong to well known genera and 

 species. The drawings were made by Rudolf Weber. 



The strata of Upper Miocene, and possibly some of 

 Lower Pliocene age along the Niobrara River in the 

 vicinity of Valentine are herein termed the Valentine 

 beds, a name proposed by Barbour and Cook in 1917 for 

 this horizon near Valentine, in Cherry County, Nebraska. 

 These beds are probably somewhat lower than those on 

 Snake Creek (not the Snake River of western Nebraska) 

 or in the Devil 's Gulch, and a list of the fauna, which has 

 been found in the Valentine beds, given by Barbour and 

 Cook, shows that it comes within the Procamelus-Hip- 

 parion zone as defined by Osborn in 1918. 



There are at least fifteen other names which have been 

 applied to this formation, some of which are faunal 

 names, while others are preoccupied. Osborn 1 desig- 

 nated these beds as the Fort Niobrara formation, and the 

 type locality is on the Niobrara River, near Fort Nio- 

 brara. Doctor W. D. Matthew has also adopted this 

 usage. However, it seems to the writer that this name 

 is not happily chosen, for the custom in the usage of 

 geologic formation names is to shorten them when pos- 

 sible. It will be recalled that the Benton, Pierre, Bridger, 

 and other formations were originally termed Fort 

 Benton, Fort Pierre, Fort Bridger, etc. If the "Fort" 

 should be dropped from Fort Niobrara, then the name 

 of this Upper Miocene formation would necessarily have 

 to be abandoned, as Niobrara formation is the name 

 applied to a subdivision of the Cretaceous. 



1 H. F. Osborn, Equidas of the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of North 

 America, Iconographic type revision. Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., new 

 ser., 2, pt. 1, 23-24, 1918. . 



