﻿184 



PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA, 



CHAPTER XXII. 

 Family— FELID^E. 



Genus — Machcerodus, Kaup. 



Species — Machcerodus latidens, Owen. 



PLATE XXV. 



§ 1. Nomenclature. 



§ 2. Range of Genus. 



§ 3. History of British Remains. 



§ 4. Relation to Machcerodus cultridens. 



% 5. Description. 



§ 6. Evidence that Machcerodus latidens came 



from Kent's Sole. 

 §7. Continental Range of Species. 

 § 8. Antiquity of Machcerodus in Kent's Hole. 

 § 9. Machcerodus from Norfolk. 



§ 1. Nomenclature. — The history of the discovery of the great sabre-toothed Feline 

 Machcerodus shows at once the difficulty with which naturalists have to contend in 

 assigning fragmentary remains to their rightful possessor, and of the gradual steps by 

 which that difficulty was removed. The tooth of the animal now known as Machmrodus 

 cultridens, from having been associated with the remains of the Bear in the deposits of the 

 Val d'Arno, was assigned to an abnormal species of that genus by Cuvier in 1824, or the 

 TJrsus cultridens} and by Nesti in 1826 to the U. drepanodon ; 2 and similar teeth found 

 in Auvergne have been described by MM. Croizet and Jobert 3 as U. cultridens Issidorensis. 

 M. Bravard, 4 however, having discovered a feline skull in the same district, which was 

 possessed of sockets such as would fit the large compressed canines somewhat resembling 

 those in question, and of a mandible in which there was a deep outer depression for the 

 reception of the upper canine when the jaws were shut, inferred that the animal was a 



1 'Oss. Foss.,' 4to, 3rd edit., 1824, vol. v, pt. ii, p. 517. 



" 'Lettera Terza dei alcune Ossa fossili, al S. Paolo Savi,' 8vo, Pisa, 1826. 



3 'Oss. Foss. de Puy de Dome,' p. 200. 



4 'Monographic de deux Felis d'Auvergne,' p. 143. 



