2l6 



Extinct Muntjacs 



forked, covered with skin, and non-deciduous. Molars short-crowned, 

 those of the lower jaw with a characteristic fold in the enamel ; tusk-like 

 canines developed at least in those species in which antlers are wanting. 



Following Dr. Max Schlosser, I regard Amphitragulus, in which there 

 are four lower pre-molars, as not generically separable from Dremotherium 

 proper, in which there are only three of these teeth. The earlier forms of 

 the genus (from the Oligocene beds of St. Gerand-le-Puy, France) are all 

 without antlers, and as many of them appear to retain both ends of the 

 lateral metacarpals, they may doubtless be regarded as the ancestral types 

 of the modern Old World deer, and probably also of those of North America. 

 It will be unnecessary to refer to these Oligocene species by name, and 

 specific mention is made only of two of those in which antlers are present. 

 These are of such a type as might be expected to occur in the common 

 ancestor of the brow-tined and fork-antlered deer of the present day. 



In North America the Miocene muntjacs were represented by the 

 closely allied genera Blastomeryx and Cosoryx. Writing of these, Messrs. 

 Scott and Osborn 1 observe that " Blastomeryx is, so far as we can at present 

 determine, almost identical with the type variously named in Europe 

 Palceomeryx and Dremotherium, about the only difference of importance 

 being the absence of the characteristic P a Iceomeryx-f old on the lower 

 molars. Cosoryx is very closely allied to Blastomeryx, and is distinguished 

 from it by the much more hypsodont (tall-crowned) molars." Cosoryx is 

 admitted to be the ancestor of the American prong-buck (Antilocapra), and 

 has also been regarded as having given rise to the American deer, but 

 doubts as to the correctness of the latter theory are suggested in the sequel. 

 With regard to the antlers of these forms, Messrs. Scott and Osborn state 

 that they were almost certainly covered with skin, their smooth surface 

 showing that they could not have been bare. They likewise state that 

 their own observations show " nothing which can be opposed to the view 

 expressed by Professor Cope that Blastomeryx should be placed in the 

 ancestral line of the distinctly American deer. A Ices, Raugifer, and Cervus 

 are really immigrants from the Old World, and do not belong to this 

 category ; but the truly American types, of which Cariacus ( = Mazama) is 

 the chief example, have a peculiar skull-structure, first pointed out by 

 Garrod, which seems to show that the American deer were separated from 



1 Bull. Mus. Harvard, vol. xx. p. 82 (1890). 



