ORDER CARNIVORA. 



H23 



the typical number of ?. The milk-teeth are very minute, and are 



3 

 either shed or absorbed at a very early date. The structure of the 

 cranium approximates to that of the Bears and their allies. The 

 larger limb-bones present very characteristic features, which enable 

 them to be readily recognised in the fossil state. No fossil forms 

 have been hitherto found which tend to throw any light upon the 

 origin of this suborder ; but in the reduction of the number of the 

 incisors, they agree with some of the Creodonts, from which group 

 they may be directly derived. 



Family Phocid^:. — The number of incisors in this family varies 



from - in Cystophora to - in Phoca and Halichoerus. The best 

 1 2 



known fossil Seals have been obtained from the Pliocene Crag of 



Antwerp, and have been referred to the following genera, of which 



Fig. 



-Lateral view of the left dentition of Phoca. Reduced. Letters as in fig. 1302. 



all but the first are peculiar to the Tertiary, although it may be 

 a question whether all of them are rightly distinguished from exist- 

 ing genera. They comprise Phoca, represented by a species allied 

 to the Common Seal (P. vitulinoides) ; Callophoca allied to the 

 Greenland Seal (P. groznlandica) ; Platyphoca to the Bearded Seal 

 (P. barbatd) ; Phocanella to the Ringed Seal (P. fatida) ; Gryphoca 

 to the Grey Seal (Halichoerus) ; Palceophoca and Monatherium to 

 the Monk Seal (Monachus) of the Mediterranean ; Mesotaria to the 

 Bladder Seal (Cystophora) ; and Prophoca which does not appear 

 closely allied to any existing form. Remains of Phocidce in other 

 formations are rare ; but a species provisionally referred to the type 



