UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 



GEOLOGY 



Vol. 7, No. 14, pp. 305-323 Issued May 24, 1913 



THE SKULL AND DENTITION OF A CAMEL 

 FROM THE PLEISTOCENE OF 

 RANCHO LA BREA 



BY 



JOHN C. MERRIAM 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Introduction 305 



Skull 308 



Dentition 313 



Relation of Rancho La Brea Specimens to Previously Described 



Pleistocene Forms from North America 317 



Comparison with Type Specimen of Camelops 318 



Comparison with Type Specimen of Auchenia hesterna Leidy. 318 

 Comparison with Texas Forms Referred to by Cope as Holo- 

 meniscus hesternus, H. sulcatus, H. vitikerianus, and H. 



macrocephalus 321 



Summary 322. 



INTRODUCTION 



Although remains of camels are fairly common in the Pleisto- 

 cene of North America, and are widely distributed over the 

 continent, up to the present time the material obtained has been 

 very fragmentary, and the available information correspondingly 

 unsatisfactory. So far as known to the writer, the best speci- 

 mens described consist of small parts of the skeleton, the skull 

 being represented by jaws and very incomplete cranial material. 



Owing to the nature of the material available, the North 

 American Pleistocene Camelidae have almost necessarily been 



