1869.] 



Prof. Owen on the Cavern of Bruniquel. 



201 



January 7, 1869. 

 Lieut.- General SxlBINE, President, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 



I. " Description of the Cavern of Bruniquel, and its Organic Con- 

 tents. — Part II. Equine Remains." By Professor Owen, F.R.S. 

 Received August 20, 1868. 



(Abstract.) 



In this paper the author has selected the fossil remains of the Equine 

 family as the subject of the second part of his Description of the Cave of 

 Bruniquel and its contents, which Cave, with the human remains, was de- 

 scribed in Part I. communicated to the Royal Society, June 9, 1864. 



He premises a definition of the several parts of the grinding-surface of 

 the upper and lower molars and premolars in the genus Equus, homolo- 

 gizing them with those in the corresponding teeth of Hipparion, Paloplo- 

 therium, and Palceotherium. 



Next, referring to the want of figures of the natural size, or of any figures 

 of the characteristic surface of the teeth of the molar series in the known 

 species of the existing Equines, the author gives a description thereof in 

 the Horse {Equus caballus), Ass (E. asinus), Kiang {E. hemiconus), 

 Quagga (E. quagga), Dauw (E. Burchelli), and Zebra (E. Zebra), indica- 

 ting by comparison their respective characteristics. These descriptions are 

 accompanied with drawings (of the natural size) of the working-surface of 

 the dentition of each species, with lettered details of such surface in the 

 teeth of both upper and under jaws. 



The Equine fossils from the Cave of Bruniquel are then described and 

 compared with each other, with the above-named existing species of Equus, 

 and with previously defined fossil species of Equidce. Two varieties in 

 respect of size and some minor characters are pointed out in the Bruniquel 

 series, of one of which figures (of the natural size) of the grinding-surface of 

 the upper and lower molar series, and of the second variety, figures of the 

 same surface of the upper molar series are given. 



The author, remarking that such evidences of mature and full-grown ani- 

 mals are rare from the Bruniquel Cave-deposits, selects evidence of certain 

 phases of dentition in the Cave Equines which lend aid in determining their 

 affinities ; these phases being illustrated by four drawings of the natural 

 size. 



Of the various fossil teeth of Equidce with which those from Bruniquel 

 have been compared, the author finds the closest resemblance, approaching 

 to identity, in certain fossils from freshwater sedimentary deposits of Post- 

 pliocene or ''Quaternary" age in the Department of the Puy-de-D6me, 

 France. Of these, descriptions are given of the teeth of the upper and 

 lower jaws from such deposits at a locality traversed by the river Allier, 



VOL. XVII. Q 



