GREGORY: NOTHARCTl'S, AN AMERICAN EOCENE PRIMATE 



219 



Postero Internal Cusp 

 Lower Molars 



Hypoconulid of ms 

 Metacristid 



Nothardus 



A pseiidohypocoiu' 



Tritubercular, erupting early 

 Tuberculosectorial 



Well developed 

 Absent 



Cieneralized Platyrrhine 



{AloNfiffd) and oeeasionally in Hracht/lclcfi. 



Radiating into sub-bilopliodont {('chu.s) {P), 



flat-crowned (Pithccia) (R) and W-shaped 



crowns (Alonatta) (P) 

 (I'r'nii.) Apparently a pseudoliypoconc. (In ('al- 



litliri.r it is connectefl Ijy an isthmus with 



the protocone) 

 (R) ISIore or less degenerate in pattern; erupting 



late 



(P) Quadritubercular, teniHng to become bilo- 

 phodont, V-shapefl pattern in Alouaifa may 

 be primitive 



(R) Absent 



(P) Present in Ahjiuitfa (on m^) 



In view of the great number and importance of the above noted characters separating Nothardus 

 from the Platyrrhini, which would be greatly extended if the characters of the vertebrae and limbs were 

 added, it would seem highly inadvisable to adopt the classification proposed by Dr. Wortman (1903, 

 pp. 410-414), in which Nothardus and Adapts, after being widely separated from the Lemuroidea, were 

 bracketed with the Cebidse, Cercopithecidse, Simiidse and Hominidse in the "superfamily Neopithecini." 

 To such extremes the " phylogenetic system" of classification inevitably leads; because it aims chiefly 

 to express hypotheses as to lineal derivation, rather than to symbolize the degrees of homological resem- 

 blances and differences between related groups. 



On the other hand, there may be considerable merit in Dr. Wortman's suggestion (op. cit., p. 412) 

 that the Adapidse (including Nothardus and Adapis) "as far as can be now ascertained from the remains, 

 occupies a position not far removed from the common primitive stem from which the great majority of 

 the living simian population of the Old and New Worlds originated. In the case of the Old World families, 

 the gap is as yet very wide, but in the case of the New World Cebida, the interval is much less, and is 

 not greater than one would be reasonably led to anticipate between an ancestor of Upper Eocene time 

 and a living descendant. ..." 



Dr. Wortman was apparently led to this fortunate inference (which coincided with that of Leidy) 

 by his observation that the Tarsius-\ike group (Paleopithecini) evince a precocious enlargement of the 

 brain and reduction of the premolars combined with a "primitive" condition of the lacrymal; while 

 "Adapis and Nothardus exhibit advance in the reduction of the lachrymals, but retain the more gener- 

 alized features of the dentition and brain enlargement. These are the essential differences between the 

 two lines and mark out very distinctly the trend as well as the possibilities of their future development. 

 It is in just such a group as that which includes Adapis, Nothardus and Limnotherium , that we must 

 seek for the beginnings of the higher monkeys and apes which follow; and while these species, at present 

 the only well known types of the series, may not have been in tlie direct line of descent, they can not at 

 the same time have been far removed from it. Omovnjs and Washakius, as far at least as we are permitted 

 to judge from their scant remains, are closely related to Adapis and Nothardus, but had made greater 

 progress in the reduction of the premolars. This gives an especially monkey-like appearance, pointing 

 particularly in the direction of certain living Cebidse.. . ." 



The writer cannot accept Dr. Wortman's view that the lacrymal of the Tarsius group is "primitive" as 

 compared with that of Nothardus. For reasons which will be later given (Amer. Mus. Bull.) the preorbital 



