32 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
OX SOME POINTS IN THE STEUCTURE OF THE 
SKULL OF FOSSIL MUSK-DEEE {Cabiotherium). 
By Chaeles Carter Blake, Esq. 
"While examiuing lately the magnificent collection of fossil musk- 
deer, from Auvergne, in tlie collection of the British Museum, in the 
case devoted to the specimens collected by M. Bravard from the 
lacustrine calcareous marls of Puy-de-D6me, a singular anomaly iu 
the structure of the crania of the genus Cainotlierium met my view. 
All the writers who have described the osteology of the skull of 
Ruminants have noticed those singular deficiencies or lacunce which 
exist at the points of junction of the various bones, and which have 
been variously described as " lacrymal openings"* or " facial inter- 
spaces. "t Their function has been unknowji, and their presence, 
although constant in each individual species, is variable in species 
nearly allied to each other. In the Cainotlierium commune, Bra- 
vard (Microfherium Benggeri), nearest allied to the Hyomoschus 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 Cainotlierium is longer in proportion to its breadth than 
the existing musk-deer {Mosclius clirysog aster). In the Dorcatherium 
JSfaui, Kaup., on the contrary, not the slightest interspace is exhibited, 
and the lacrymal angle is definitively closed. In some of the speci- 
mens named Cainotlierium in the British Museum, no interspace 
exists. These probably belong to a separate species, % as De Blain- 
ville remarks on the typical Cainotlierium commune, termed by him 
Anoplotherium laticurvatum, that it possesses " des lacunes sous-lacry- 
males assez grandes, en forme de tongues virgulesy 
It is most interesting to observe a similar anomalous diversity of 
structure exists in the recent species of ruminants most nearly allied 
to the Moschidse and Microtheria. 
I need only call attention to the fact that a large lacrymal opening 
is present in the Llama {Auclienia Llama), and none in the Yicuiia 
{A. Vicuna); that in the yellow-bellied musk (Mosclius clirysog aster) 
a large, and in the small water-musk of Western Africa (Hyomosclius 
aquaticus) a small interspace exists ; whilst in the nearly allied 
Meminiia Indica, Tragulus Stanleyanus, and T. pygmcBus, ossification 
has extended over the whole point of junction of the lacrymal (73), 
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 Moschidae. 
* Gray, ' Catalogue of Mammalia' in (t)llection of British Museum, part 3. 
t Spencer Cobbold," Rurainantia," in Todd's, ' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physi- 
ology,' p. 513. 
X De Blaioville, " Osteographie," Anoplotherium, p. 75. 
