FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 
201 
Paloeontological Besearclies in Greece. 
From a communication on the researclies 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 Pikerimi, 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 exhibite'd 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 Palceotmgus Ronenii. 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 Palseo- 
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 PalaBotragus 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 
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