82 



THE GEOLOGIST, 



ON SOME POINTS IN THE STEUCTUEE OF THE 

 SKULL OF FOSSIL MIJSK-DEEE {Cain other ium). 



Bt Chaeles Cartee Blake, Esq. 



While examiuing lately the magnificent collection of fossil musk- 

 deer, from A uvergne, in the collection of the British Museum, in the 

 case devoted to the specimens collected bv M. Bravard from the 

 lacustrine calcareous marls of Puy-de-D6me, a singular anomaly in 

 the structure of the crania of the genus CainotJierium met my view. 

 All the writers who have described the osteology of the skull of 

 Ruminants have noticed those singular deficiencies or lacuncd which 

 exist at the points of junction of the various bones, and which have 

 been variously described as " lacrymal openings"* or " facial inter- 

 spaces. "f Their function has been unknown, and their presence, 

 although constant in each individual species, is variable in species 

 nearly allied to each other. In the Cainotherium commune, Bra- 

 vard {MicrotJierium Benggeri), nearest allied to the HiiomoscJius of 

 the present day, ossification at this lacrymal point of intersection 

 has extended to a much less degree than in its living analogue. The 

 interspace in Cainotherium is longer in proportion to its breadth than 

 the existing musk-deer {Moschus chrysog aster). In the Dor Gather iurii 

 Naui, Kaup., on the contrary, not the slightest interspace is exhibited, 

 and the lacrymal angle is definitively closed. In some of the speci- 

 mens named Cainotherium in the British Museum, no interspace 

 exists. These probably belong to a separate species, % Blain- 

 ville remarks on the typical Cainotherium commune, termed by him 

 Anoplotherium laticurvatum, that it possesses " des lacunes sous-lacry- 

 males assez grandes, en forme de tongues mrgulesT 



It is most interesting to observe a similar anomalous diversity of 

 structure exists in the recent species of ruminants most nearly allied 

 to the Moschidae and Microtheria. 



I need only call attention to the fact that a large lacrymal opening 

 is present in the Llama {Auchenia Llama), and none in the Vicuna 

 {A. Vicuna) ; that in the yellow-bellied musk (Moschus chrgsogasfer) 

 a large, and in the small water-musk of AVestern Africa (Hgomoschus 

 aquaticus) a small interspace exists ; whilst in the nearly allied 

 Meminna Indica, Tragiolus Sfanleganus, and T. pggmmis, ossification 

 has extended over the whole point of junction of the lacrymal (78), 

 frontal (11), nasal (15), maxillary (21), and premaxillary (22) bones. 



The object of my present communication is to point out some of 

 the reasons for this singular anomalous structure in the fossil and 

 recent MoschidsB. 



* (rray, 'Catalogue of jMammalia ' in colloctiou of British iMuscum, part 3. 

 t Spencer Cobbold," Rnniinantia," in Todd's, ' Cyclopajdia of Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology,' p. 513. 



+ De Hhvinville, " Osteographic," Anoplotlicrinni, p. 75. 



