1896.] Geology and Paleontology. 49 



Hoplophoneus primaevus Leidy and Owen. 



The original type of this species is figured in the The Ancient Fauna 

 of Nebraska (1853). Later Leidy figured two skulls in the Extinct 

 Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska, remarking that the larger one might 

 be the skull of an old male, and that the original type was somewhat 

 intermediate in size. The determination of the variation due to sexual 

 characters seems impossible in the case of the extinct cats. However, 

 the material which is available, shows that there are two types repre- 

 sented by these two skulls, the skeletons referable to the types differing 

 more markedly than the skulls. Inasmuch as Leidy's original type 

 agrees more closely with the smaller one, the difference being about 

 such as is presented in any of the species of Machairodonts, it is taken 

 as representative of H. primaevus. In the Princeton collection there 

 is a fairly complete skull (number 11,013) and two nearly complete 

 skeletons (numbers 10,741 and 10,934), with the latter skeleton there 

 is also most of the skull. This makes it possible to correlate the skull 

 with the skeletons and give the measurements of the species. The 

 skull is short and high in the frontal region, the orbit horizontally 

 oval, the posttympanic process short, the glenoid drooping considerably 



The skeleton is not rugose and the limb bones have slender shafts as 

 in Dinidis felina. The dental formula is I f, C \, Pm 1,M1; the sec- 

 ond superior premolar probably being constantly present. 

 Length of skull, condyles to premaxillaries, Leidy's type 



(approximately) 150 mm. 



Length of humerus 160 " 



Length of ulna 163 " 



Length of radius 122 " 



Length of femur . ? 185 " 



Length of tibia I 43 " 



Hoplophoneus 



obustus sp. nov. 



This species is proposed as representative of Leidy's second type 01 

 H. primaevu*. It has its most perfect type in the skeleton and skull 

 (No. 650) determined as H primaevus by Osborn and Wortman, the 

 measurements of which were published in the American Museum Bul- 

 letin, Vol. VI, 1894, p. 228, along with those of H. insolens (H. occi- 

 dentalis) and which I give here, adding the measurement of the skull. 

 The species is represented in the Princeton collection by specimen 

 4 



Mo. Bot. Garden, 



