CRANIA OF RUMINANTS FROM THE INDIAN TERTIARIES. 47—134 
are supposed to be placed on a horizontal surface, resting on the paroccipital processes 
and anterior molars.) On the other hand, in the cranium of JBubalus palceivdicus 
there is a very abrupt and sharp slope downwards from the vertex as far as the 
orbits ; and then the nasals are continued downwards with a less steep slope, so that 
at a corresponding distance below the orbits, the anterior surface of the nasals is 
in the same plane with the superior border of the orbit : this difference may, how- 
ever, be brought about by a greater or lesser development of the frontal sinuses. 
Below the orbits there is a considerable difference in the form of the two crania ; 
in B. palceinclicus there is less lateral contraction of the maxilla below the orbit, 
and the external surface of this bone slopes mucli more rapidly towards the median 
line than in the recent species ; this is caused by the very different form of the 
nasals in the two species ; in Bubalus arni these bones are very broad and flattened, 
with no great V'idth at their infra-orbital angles, and becoming wider towards their 
distal extremities ; the infra-orbital angle is placed considerably below the inferior 
border of the orbit : from the wide and slightly-arched form of the nasals the 
transverse section of the nasal cavity presents a low and wide arch, broader than 
it is high ; the transverse diameter of the nasals at their infra-orbital angle is one and 
a half inches, and at a point three inches below the orbit, two and a half inches. In 
Bubalus palcBindicus the nasals are much wider at their infra- orbital angle than 
at any other point, and become rapidly narrower below this point ; the specimen does 
not, however, show their distal extremity ; instead of being nearly flat in the middle 
of their course, they are greatly rounded and arched, so that the lateral surfaces 
become very nearly at right angles to the plane of the median surface ; the infra- 
orbital angles reach almost as high as the inferior border of the orbits : the 
transverse diameter of these bones at the infra-orbital angle is two and a half inches, 
and at a distance of three inches below the orbit two inches, — the latter diameter 
being considerably less than the corresponding one of the smaller-sized cranium of 
the Arni. The nasal cavity in transverse section forms a vaulted arch, higher than 
broad, its boundaries forming an isosceles triangle, whereas the corresponding bound- 
aries of this part of the Ami’s cranium approximate very closely to an equilateral 
triangle. 
The length of the two crania from the inferior border of the foramen magnum 
to the anterior extremity of the true molar series is also considerably different, 
being upwards of three inches longer in the fossil than in the recent species ; this 
is correlated by the enormous width of the occipital region of the former, exceeding 
that of the latter by two and a half inches. 
The spheno-palatine region of the cranium of Bubalus palmndicus is at once 
distinguished from that of the Arni by the relative directions of the bones com- 
posing the basi-cranial axis and the surface of the palate : in the cranium of the 
former species, a straight rod resting on the palatal surface will also rest on the 
whole of the basi-sphenoid and basi-occipital ; whereas in the latter species a 
similarly placed rod would only touch the basi-occipital close to the foramen 
