Vol. 6] Merriam: Virgin Valley and Thousand Creek. 



251 



rooted, or the carnassial was short and the trigonid portion of 

 a distinctly crushing type. As the jaw was evidently short and 

 massive it is improbable that a two-rooted M., was present ; in 

 other words the carnassial was presumably of a crushing type. 



With the information available it is not advisable to attempt 

 a definite correlation of this form with any known type. It is 

 perhaps significant that Matthew and Cook describe, from the 

 Snake Creek Pliocene, a mustelid which differs from Poto- 

 motherium in the presence of a two-rooted M„. 



Occurrence: Thousand Creek Beds; locality 1103, Thousand 

 Creek, Humboldt County, Nevada. 



FELIDAE 



FELIS, sp. a. 



Numerous isolated limb bones including astragali, a cal- 

 caneum, phalanges, metatarsals, and portions of the radius and 

 ulna represent a large feline form exceeding average specimens 

 of the Recent African lion in size. (See figs. 18 and 19). These 

 specimens are comparable to the fragmentary material described 

 from the Snake Creek Beds by Matthew and Cook, or to the large 

 cats described as Felis maxima by Scott and Osborn 11 , from the 

 Loup Fork of Kansas. 



Judging from the number of loose fragments found, this 

 species, or group of species, was not uncommon in the Virgin 

 Valley and Thousand Creek faunas and seems to have been an 

 important element in the West- American Carnivora at this time. 



Whether the species represented by the material at hand was 

 machaerodont or typically feline is not definitely determined. 



Occurrence: Virgin Valley Beds; locality 1064, Virgin Val- 

 ley, Nevada; Thousand Creek Beds; locality 1063, 1096. 1097, 

 1099, 1100, 1101, Thousand Creek, Humboldt County, Nevada. 



ii Scott, W. B., and Osborn, H. F., Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 20, p. 

 70, 1890. 



