I44Q 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



become relatively smaller than in Viverra, and in the figured 

 species have a tendency to become placed on the inner side of 

 the carnassial. The genus Cryptoprocta, which is unknown in a 

 fossil state, approximates in the character of its dentition and its 

 semi-retractile claws to the Felidtz. 



Family Hy^nid^e. — The above-mentioned genus Ictitherium may 

 without much doubt be regarded as the ancestral type of the Hyczn- 

 idce, which form a family of comparatively recent origin and entirely 

 confined to the Old World. 1 The transition to Ictitherium is indeed 



Fig. 1324. — Oral view of the right half of the palate and right ramus of the mandible of the 

 Spotted Hyaena (//. crocuta), together with outer view of the lower carnassial tooth. One-half 

 natural size. 



so close that it is impossible to give a distinctive diagnosis of the 

 family. Usually, however, there is but a single upper true molar, 

 which is of small proportionate size, and is generally placed more or 

 less entirely on the inner side of the carnassial ; the latter tooth 

 (fig. 1325) always having three distinct lobes to the blade, and a 

 well-developed inner tubercle. The lower carnassial, or first true 

 molar (fig. 1324) has a very large blade, and the hind talon com- 



1 This is exclusive of sElurodoji {Prohycena) and Hycsnocyon, which Dr 

 Schlosser transfers from the Ursidce to this family. 



