110 



MAMMALIAN DENTITION 



Tarsius, already mentioned, the Specter-lemur of the Malay 

 Archipelago (Fig. 34), though specializing from the main an- 

 cestral stock very early, still retains certain quite primitive 

 features. The dental formula is: 



Iy, Cj,p|,m|. total 34. 



Despite the marked change in the incisor region the molars 

 retain their subequal size (indeed the last lower molar is even 

 longer than the others), the upper molars possess no hypocone 



Fig. 34. — Dentition of Specter-lemur (Tarsius borneanus, Elliot; 9.816-1). This 

 Lemur exhibits very primitive features in the molars although the incisor region has 

 undergone marked specialization. 



but merely a low cingulum on the palatal aspect of the proto- 

 cone, and each lower molar exhibits a paraconid while the 

 third has a large median hypoconulid. The retraction of the 

 incisor region, normal for all Primates, has been carried fur- 

 ther than usual in Tarsius but there seems to have been no 

 marked crowding in the molar area. The divergent limbs of 

 the dental arch and the extension of the palate somewhat be- 

 hind the last molars are, like the pointed premolars, primitive 



