FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



201 



Palceontological Researches in Greece. 



From a communication on the researches in Greece, by M. Albert 

 Gaudry, we extract the following interesting remarks : — 



M. Gaudry states that in superintending the excavations which 

 the Academy had placed under his care, he was struck not only with 

 the size of many of the quadrupeds disinterred at Pikerirhi, but also 

 with the numbers of the different animals which were found together. 

 There were numerous remains of antilopes. The bones collected by 

 him in 1855 and in I860 attest the presence of more than a hundred 

 and fifty of these ruminants. It is probable that formerly some of 

 these species lived together in large herds, as in our own time. All 

 the zoologists who have lately given themselves to the study of the 

 antilopes have agreed to divide them into several genera. Mr. Gray, 

 in his catalogue of the Mammals in the British Museum, admits nearly 

 thirty-seven genera derived from the old genus " Antilope." Most 

 of the fossil kinds found in Greece cannot be classed in any one of 

 these divisions ; and to conform to the modern nomenclature should 

 be arranged in new groups. Nevertheless, to these groups M. Gaudry 

 only gives the title of sub-genera; for antilopes form a tribe in 

 which, with few exceptions, it is difficult to determine true genera — 

 that is to say, groups which separate themselves one from the other 

 by an ensemble of special characters. M. Gaudry exhibited a series 

 of skulls of antilopes which he found at Pikerimi. One of them 

 presenting a strange appearance, its horns being raised upon the 

 front part which forms the protection of the orbits, the region situated 

 behind the horns being very long and narrow, and the occipital crest 

 very straight. 



The animal to which such a skull belonged cannot be included in 

 any of the sub-genera of antilopes known at present. M. Gaudry 

 proposes to call it Palceotragus Pouenii. After having given the 

 measures of the skull, he goes on to say " Seen from behind the 

 fossil reminds us of the skull of a horse, by its very straight occiput 

 rising in the centre ; but in all the other characteristics it differs from 

 it : it is a true Ruminant. By the lengthened and rectangular form 

 of that part of the skull which extends behind the orbits, the Palaso- 

 tragus resembles the Helladotherium ; but it differs from it by its 

 non-sloping occiput, by having horns, and the molars being more 

 furrowed. The discovery of this gigantic Ruminant has been already 

 announced to the academy. 



The lengthening of the posterior part of the skull, the molars 

 marked with deep furrows, and the want of the lacrymal cavity, 

 admit of some affinity between the Greek fossil and the giraffe, did 

 not the position and form of the horns establish a distinction between 

 them. By its rather confined face, deprived of the lachrymal cavity, 

 the Pakeotragus resembles the goat ; but differs from it in the form 

 of the teeth and the posterior part of the skull. The spreading of its 

 horns, and their implantation in the orbits, reminds one of certain 

 VOL. iv. z 



