181—4 INDIAN TERTIARY AND POST-TERTIARY YERTEBRATA. 
the cranium form the superior, lateral, posterior, and inferior aspects, and are drawn 
of the natural size. 1 
With the exception of a crushing-in of part of the frontals, this skull is 
singularly perfect, and a glance at the figures will immediately show that it belongs 
to the genus Mellivora. Speaking of their two skulls Messrs. Baker and Durand 
remark that “ the two fossils, though differing considerably from each other,, agree 
in the following points of dissimilarity from the recent skull [ Mellivora inclica ]. 
Their canine teeth are larger and stronger, and their tubercular molars smaller ; the 
two lines of molars converge towards the muzzle considerably less in the fossil than 
in the recent animal, and the individual false molars [premolars] are set less 
obliquely to the line of the maxillary. The frontal is wider between the orbits ; the 
post-orbital apophyses more prominent and the depression of the cranium in rear of 
them less deep ; the exterior portion of the mastoid process has a far greater 
development [well shown in figure 2] ; the transverse occipital ridge is thicker, more 
rugged and more prominent, and projects considerably beyond the plane of the 
occiput in the prolongation of that of the parietal bones.” 
The following table gives the dimensions of the two skulls described by Messrs. 
Baker and Durand, partly taken from their memoir ; and also 'those of the skull of a 
very old individual of the living Indian species, in the collection of the writer : the 
measurements of the dentition of two other specimens, from the collection of the 
Royal College of Surgeons, are also given : — 
Fossil species. M. indica. 
Length from occipital condyle to incisors 
Breadth at masioid process 
Greatest breadth of brain box . 
Height of occiput 
Interval between paroccipital processes . 
Greatest zygomatic breadth 
Interval between outer surfaces of canines 
,, ,, widest part of molar series 
Antero -posterior diameter of base of canine 
Length of molar series . . . . 
,, ,, pm. 2 
„ „ „ 3 
t 
Dublin. Brit. Mus. 
5-51 .. 5-08 
3-26 .. 3-1 
2-44 .. 2-41 
1-69 .. 1-74 
1- 99 ..2-0 
2- 99 .. 2-85 
1-31 .. 1-2 
1-87 .. 1-65 
0- 39 .. 0-34 
1- 28 .. 1-18 
0-27 .. 0-25 
0-39 .. 0-36 
0-56 .. 0-52 
colio nostra. 
5-35 
E.C.S. 
744 
E.C.S^ 
742 
2-5 
1-78 
1- 98 
2- 91 
1-3 
1-9 
0- 36 
1- 26 
0-23 
0-34 
0'52 
0-34 .. 0-38 
0-24 .. 0-25 
0-32 .. 0-38 
0.48 .. 0-56 
The slightly larger size of the Dublin skull, of which the right side of the 
palate is figured in the woodcut on the next page (fig. 1, a), in the 
absence of other points of distinction, does not seem indicative of more than 
individual, or sexual, variation. The table of dimensions shows how extremely close 
is the general resemblance between the recent and fossil skulls ; the most important 
differences being the considerably greater development in the fossil form of the 
mastoid portion of the periotic. The Dublin specimen, which is not improbably 
l It is stated in tbe “ Palaeontological Memoir^ ” that this skull corresponds to figure 5 of Messrs. Baker and Durand’s 
memoir : it really corresponds to figure 7. 
