418 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



retractibility of the claws be suppressed, the camassiality of 

 the teeth is reciprocally modified. If the unguiculate foot is 

 reduced from the digitigrade to the plantigrade type, the denti- 

 tion is still more altered, and made more subservient to a mixed 

 diet. Secondary modifications of the ungulate foot have 

 corresponding changes in the structure of the skull and teeth. 

 By the application of the correlative principle to the fossil 

 mammalian remains of pliocene and latter deposits, the Her- 

 bivora have been distinguished from the Carnivora; and out 

 of the latter have been reconstructed extinct species of the 

 feline, viverrine, ursine, and other families of the order. 



In England and continental Europe a peculiarly destructive 

 feline quadruped existed, with the upper canines much elon- 

 gated, trenchant, sharp-pointed, sabre-shaped, whence the name 

 Machairoclus proposed for this feline sub-genus. It was repre- 

 sented by species as large as a lion (M. cultridens* and M. 

 latidens); and by others of the size of a leopard {M.joalmiclens 

 and M. megantereon). This form of Feline first appears in the 

 miocene of Auvergne and of Eppelsheim ; next in the pliocene 

 of the Val d'Arno ; and finally in cave breccia in Devonshire. 

 Species ofMachairodus have been found in the Pampa's deposits, 

 in Brazilian bone-caves, and in the Sewalik tertiaries of India. 

 The penultimate tooth in the upper jaw and the last 



tooth in the lower jaw of the 

 felines, were denominated by 

 Cuvier " dents carnassieres." 

 The camassial or sectorial is a 

 very characteristic tooth in the 



Working surface of the upper sectorial Carnivorous Order, but under- 

 tooth, Hyaena. Nat size. -i-n < • i 



- goes many modifications, and 



preserves its typical form, as represented in figures 162 and 

 163, only in the most strictly flesh-feeding species. In it 



* Described by Prof. Nesti of Florence in his " Littera Terza al. Sig. Prof. 

 Paolo Savi," 8vo, 1826. 



