1 



SJVl 31 T90R 



I /•'/■„,„ '/'/,, America n Gcolot/ix/, April. ]^'.r.'.\ 



OBSERVATIONS ON LLAMA REMAINS FROM COL- 

 ORADO AND KANSAS 



By F. W. ClSAGIN, Colorado Springs, Col. 



Restricting the genus. Auchenia, to llama-like forms having the 

 premolar formula f, and considering that the dentition of A. 

 cali/ornica (Leidy) is unknown, the transfer of .1. hestema 

 (Leidy) to the genus, Holomeniscus, which Cope* has suggested 

 on the ground of the probable absence of Pm. 3,t 1ms rendered 

 it doubtful whether any of the wesl American Camelida belong 

 to Auclu a in proper. 



1 am indebted to Mr. II. (\ Hills, for opportunity to study the 

 remains of a cameloid form obtained by him from volcanic ash- 

 Weds on a small tributary of the Huerfano river, in Huerfano 

 county. Colorado. These remains, which arc now deposited in 

 the cabinet Of t lie Colorado Scientific Society at Denver, include 

 considerable portions of both mamillaries and mandibles and more 

 or less perfect contained teeth, with various other parts of the 

 skeleton, and pertain to a true Aiiehenia, the molar dentition 

 presenting the formula I'm. M. |. 



I was at first inclined to identify this Auchenia with .1. hestema 

 Leidy; but geographical and some other considerations seem to 

 render it more probable that Cope's identification of the maxillary 

 in the Condon collection from the Oregon desert with that species 

 is correct: and it is certain that that maxillary, as described, 

 represents a different species from the Huerfano county Auchenia, 

 whether Cope's inference of the absence of Pm. 3, and his con- 

 sequent reference of the specimen to the genus, Holomeniscus, be 

 justifiable or not. 



The Oregon desert maxillary is described as having the Pm. 4 

 anteriorly attenuated, and this to such an extent as to render it 

 -■almost certain that there was no third premolar in front of it." 

 In the Huerfano specimen, there is a well developed two-rooted 

 anter< .-posteriorly elongate Pm.3, while the large three-rooted Pm.4 

 is two-rooted anteriorly and has its crown in the form of a quadrate 

 prism, the grinding surface presenting a single large erescentic la- 

 cuna. In form, the third and fourth superior pre-molars thus have 

 some general resemblance to those of Procamelus occidentalis. 



*Extinct Mammalia of the Valley of Mexico, p. 17. 

 fin f erred from the anteriorly attenuated Pm. 4 in a superior maxillary 

 ragmcnt from the Oregon desert, believed by Prof. Cope to pertain to 

 nestemd. 



