1444 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



canal, the reduction in the number of the cheek-teeth, the great 

 development of the canines and carnassials, and the digitigrade feet, 

 with their strongly curved and generally perfectly retractile claws, 

 protected by complete bony sheaths. The auditory bulla is greatly 

 inflated, and completely divided by a vertical bony septum. The 

 dental characters common to the entire family are the strong develop- 

 ment of the canines, the presence of not more than one upper 

 and two lower true molars, and the circumstance that the three 

 lower incisors are placed in the same horizontal line. With one 

 exception all the known forms have an entepicondylar foramen to 



Fig. 1328. — Oblique lateral view of the cranium of Hy&na crocula; from the German Cave. 

 Reduced. (After Owen.) 



the humerus. This family was probably derived from the ancestors 

 of the modern Viverridce, the view taken by Dr Schlosser that the 

 true Felidce are directly descended from the Creodonts being very 

 improbable. The earlier forms, constituting the Nimravidce. of 

 Professor Cope, present generalised features which are lost in the 

 true Cats. 



Here may be mentioned the remarkable genus Procelurus from 

 the Lower Miocene and Upper Eocene of France, which includes 

 small Carnivores of generalised affinities, which have been placed 

 by Professor Cope in the true Felidcz and by Dr Schlosser in the 

 Mustelidcz. The skull agrees with that of Cryptoprocta in the 

 possession of an alisphenoidal canal, and the teeth also present 

 resemblances to those of that genus, the formula of the cheek-teeth 



being Pm. 1, M. - . The femur has a third trochanter, and the 

 4 2 



phalangeals, according to Messrs Scott and Osborn, resemble those 



of Dinictis. This genus also shows signs of affinity with Palaopri- 



onodon and Pseudcelurus. 



Dinictis is a somewhat larger but likewise very generalised form, 



from the Miocene of the United States, which was at one time 



