NOTES AND LITEKATTJRE 



SCHLOSSER OX FAYUM MAMMALS 1 

 A Preliminary Notice of Dr. Schlosser's Studies upon the Collec- 

 tions made in the Oligocene of Egypt for the Stuttgart Museum, by 

 Herr Markgraf. —The most interesting points are the much greater 

 variety of Ilyracoidea, including both bunodont and buno- 

 selenodont types, and the presence of true Primates, which the 

 author refers quite positively to the Anthropoidea. The fauna 

 is also shown to include ( 'hiroptera and Insect ivora. the one order 

 represented by the humerus of a large vampyroid bat, Vampy- 

 ravus, the other by a lower jaw. M < Inhlobotes, compared with 

 the somewhat problematical Proglires. 



The Primates are represented by three lower jaws. Ma vipith- 

 ecus, Parapifh* < its and I'mpl'mpit It < ens. the two latter sufficiently 

 complete to indicate the dentition, which is typically primate, 

 although in the reviewer's opinion the material is not adequate 

 to prove their reference to the Anthropoidea, still less to assert 

 that the last genus is "not only the ancestor of all the Simiidre, 

 but probably also of the Ilominida 1 . " If the author had stated 

 that the Oligocene ancestor of man probably had lower teeth like 

 those of Propliopithccus, the conclusion might well be accepted. 

 But the corollary of Schlosser's statement is that we have found 

 the Oligocene ancestor of man and that he lived in Africa. The 

 evidence is not adequate to warrant any such conclusions. Dr. 

 Schlosser has perhaps no intention of drawing them. But others 

 will promptly do so, and add a little more to the top-heavy and 

 ill-balanced superstructure of speculation and hypothesis which 

 obscures the little that we really do know about the ancestry of 

 man and, to a less extent, what we know of the ancestry of most 

 other animals. 



The Hyracoidea are discussed at some length. Besides the 

 more typical Sairhatheriidie of Andrews, with bunoselenodont 

 teeth, Schlosser refers to here as a distinct subfamily, the prob- 

 lematical Gcniohyus of Andrews and defines three new genera, 

 Pachyhyrax, Mixohyrax and Bunohyrax, intermediate between 

 the two extremes. Six new species are named, but without hint 

 of description. As the paper is avowedly published in order to 

 1 titer einige fossile Siiugethiere aus dem Oligocan von Agypten," von 

 1 Marz. 1910. 



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