170 University of Calif ornia Publications in Geology [Vol.7 



SPECIMEN FROM AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF CALIFORNIA 



A lower molar tooth presented by Mr. Benjamin Pownell to 

 the University of California some years ago is the only available 

 specimen representing the Tapiridae in California. This tooth 

 was originally in the collection of Dr. Snell, and as suggested 

 by Dr. Wm. J. Sinclair, who obtained it from Mr. Pownell, it 

 may be the tooth to which reference is made by Wm. P. Blake and 

 later by J. D. Whitney. In a note on the occurrence of fossil 

 remains of the tapir in California published in 1868, Blake 1 

 stated that remains of this animal had been found at a depth of 

 forty feet below the surface in the auriferous gravels at Wood's 

 Creek near Sonora, Tuolumne County, California. The speci- 

 mens were said to have been presented to Blake by Dr. Snell of 

 Sonora. The material consisted of a lower molar and possibly an 

 epiphysis of a cervical vertebra. The tooth was determined by 

 Professor Owen of the British Museum as the "crown of the 

 left lower molar tooth of a tapir." The specimen mentioned 

 by W. P. Blake is referred to by J. D. Whitney 2 in 1879 in his 

 discussion of the Auriferous Gravels. 



la it Ic 



Figs, la to Ic. Tapirus haysii calif ornicus, n. subsp. M 2 (?). No. 8747, 

 natural size. From the Auriferous Gravels of California. Fig. la, outer 

 view; fig. lb, superior view; fig. Ic, inner view. 



The tooth presented to the University by Mr. Pownell is a 

 left lower molar. It is apparently M 2 . It seems to be dis- 

 tinguished from M 3 mainly by the relatively greater width of 

 the posterior half of the tooth. The anterior and posterior 

 transverse ridges are unworn and show only faint indications of 

 notches between protoconid and metaconid, and between hypo- 

 conid and entoconid. There is an anterior and a posterior 



1 Blake, Wm. P., Amer. Jour. Sc., ser. 2, vol. 45, p. 381, 1868. 



2 Whitney, J. D., Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 6, p. 250, 1879. 



