﻿CONCLUSION, 



193 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



CONCLUSION. 



We have now described all the members of the family of the Felidse which have been 

 proved to have lived in Britain. Out of the six species we have been able to add two to 

 the catalogue of British animals — the Panther or Leopard, and the Felis Coffer — and 

 the latter of these has been hitherto unknown in Europe. 



Our investigations into the osteology of the living Lion and the Felis spelcea have 

 resulted in the identification of the fossil with the living animal, and the probable ex- 

 tension of its range into North America. We have also brought forward the very 

 curious historical evidence as to its retreat from Europe some two hundred years 

 before the Christian era. 



The Lynx, and the Leopard or Panther, and the Felis catus and Felis Coffer, living 

 during the Pleistocene age, have also been shown to be specifically identical with the 

 living forms. 



The Macharodus latidens, an aberrant member of the Felidse, is the only Pleistocene 

 member that has become extinct. And since it is specifically distinct from the Pleisto- 

 cene and Meiocene M. cultridens by the serration of its incisors, it is very probably a 

 form that characterises an early phase of the Pleistocene period, a modification of the 

 Pleiocene type that lived on into the succeeding geological age. 



In the following table we have given the range and distribution of the British Fossil 

 Felidce : 



List of Species. 



Britain. 



European Continent. 



o w 



< 



Pleiocene. 



Pleisto- 

 cene. 



Pre- 

 historic. 



Historic. 



Pleiocene. 



Pleisto- 

 cene. 



Pre- 

 historic. 



Historic. 



Felis leo {spelcea) , L 



F. lytiw. L 



F . pardus, L 



F. Gaffer, Desm. . 



? 



X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 



X 



X 



X 



X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 



X 

 X 



X 



X 

 X 



X 



X 



F. catus, L 



Machcerodus latidens, Ow. 



The presence of the Lion in Europe in Prehistoric times is rendered necessary from 



the fact that it is both Pleistocene and Historic, although it has not been discovered in 



any Prehistoric deposit. 



26 



