﻿174 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



§ 3. Determination. These remains were submitted to Prof. Owen shortly after their 

 discovery, and were pronounced by that high authority to belong to Felis cervaria, the 

 Lynx of Northern Asia. A careful comparison, however, with the Lynx in the British and 

 Oxford Museums, and that of the Royal College of Surgeons/proves that they may be referred 

 with equal justice to the Lynx of Norway and Sweden, Felis borealis (Temminck). It is 

 foreign to the plan of this work to analyse all the variations presented by the European 

 and North- Asiatic Lynxes ; but we cannot detect any osteological difference of specific 

 value between the Norwegian Lynx and the North- Asiatic Felis cervaria. The variations 

 also in size presented by the various European Lynxes seem to be of no more importance 

 in classification than those of the African Panther {Leopardus varius). 



Among the smaller Felines there are only the Lynxes which are capable of being com- 

 pared with our fossil on account of their peculiarly formed teeth. It is differentiated 

 from the Canadian Lynx by the presence of a small cusp c (PL XXIII, figs. 3, 4, 5) on the 

 lower true molar, which is invariably absent from the corresponding tooth of the latter 

 animal. It is allied most closely with the Norwegian Lynx and the Felis cervaria. We 

 will compare the remains seriatim. 



The basi-occipital in the fossil is remarkable for its intertympanic squareness, fig. 2, 

 as in the Norwegian Lynx. In Felis cervaria the planes bounding it on either side next 

 the tympanies are inclined at a much greater angle to each other. The occipital foramen, 

 fig. 1, is slightly more roof-shaped above than in either of these two Lynxes. The sur- 

 occipital encroaches somewhat further upon the superior surface of the head than in Felis 

 cervaria, as is shown by the measurements ; there are no other differences observable 

 between the fossil skull and those of these two animals. The relatively small mastoid 

 differentiates the fossil from the Panther of Africa, the large size of the paramastoids from 

 the Caracal, in which animal they are reduced to a small lamina embracing the tympanic 

 bulla. The same point also differentiates it from Leopardus par dina, and from the Peshoo 

 or Canadian Lynx. 



The lower jaw (figs. 3, 4, 5, 6) differs in no respect from that of Felis borealis and 

 F. cervaria, excepting in the strength of the muscular impressions. The alveolar border 

 is nearly parallel to the inferior, without any tapering ; the anterior portion is very much 

 thickened ; the ramal process a (fig. 3) is developed, and causes the convexity of the 

 lower contour. The exterior of the crown of the canine bears two sillons (figs. 3 and 7), 

 of which the inner is the smaller. In Felis cervaria the latter is very faint ; but it is very 

 strongly marked in Felis borealis. The inner side of the crown also is traversed by one 

 sillon, that bounds the flattened slightly convex internal area. 



The crown of premolar 3 consists of three cusps, of which the anterior, or the smaller, 

 b (figs. 3, 4, 5), is not mapped off from the primary, a, by a cleft, but springs from a 

 cingulum that is well defined on the inner side ; a is very large and triangular, and separated 

 from the secondary, c, by a deep cleft ; c is defined from the cingulum. In F. borealis 

 the cusp, b, is more clearly defined. 



Premolar 4 repeats all the characters of the preceding tooth, but the secondary cusps, 



