SIWALIK AND NARBADA CARNIVORA. 
77—251 
Cranium. — The above-mentioned cranium, represented of the natural size in 
figures 1, la, of plate XXXII., is deficient only in the zygomatic arches, and in the 
extremity of the muzzle. Mr. Bose observes that it has “ suffered from a crush, and 
has, 'in consequence, been somewhat flattened anteriorly; but no distortion, at least 
to any considerable extent, has taken place.” The same writer also observes that 
Messrs. Baker and Durand, after comparing it with a skull of Cam's bengalensis 
(Bengal fox), “ found that the fossil, while agreeing generally with the latter, differed 
from it in the greater breadth of the brain-case, the height and thickness of the 
lambdoidal crest at the summit of the supra-occipital, the greater concavity and size 
of the post-orbital processes of the frontal, and the closer approximation of the false- 
molars in the upper jaw ; but they did not notice the following important peculiarities 
of the fossil, nor did they give it any specific name : — ■ 
“ In all Caniclce , and more or less in all other Carnivora, the basifacial axis is 
parallel to the basicranial axis ; but in the fossil now under examination the palate 
makes an angle, though a very open one, t with the base of the cranium, somewhat as 
in the rabbit. The specific name is derived from this the most characteristic feature 
of the fossil. 
“ The internal tubercle of the sectorial is stouter than in the [Bengal] fox. 
u The upper tuberculars, especially the liindermost one, are proportionately larger. 
u Messrs. Baker and Durand noticed a peculiarity about the frontal ridges, that 
these, starting from the rear of the post-orbital apophyses, “ converge towards the 
occiput in a' curvilinear direction, until the distance between them is reduced to about 
half an inch, after which they run nearly parallel for some distance, and then 
converge again, till they unite near the occiput, and become blended with the parietal 
crest. I find this peculiarity, which is absent in the European fox, well marked in 
both the specimens of the Bengal fox ( Cams bengalensis) I have had for comparison, 
as well as in the Fennecs \_C. zerda, C. caama ].” 
As the skull of Canis ( Vidpes) bengalensis agrees very nearly in general size with 
the fossil skull it will be convenient to institute a somewhat closer comparison 
between the two. It may be premised that' the living species is a microdont and 
meionocreodont form, having the carnassial teeth rather larger than certain North 
American alopecoids, such as Canis littoralis {woodcut fig. 9, B, p. 256), considered by 
Prof. Huxley 1 as the nearest living allies of Otocyon ; and connecting that group, 
through the small S. African alopecoids C. zerda and G. caama , with the larger 
megalocreodont foxes of the Old World, such as C. vulpes. It will be seen from the 
woodcut cited that the last true molar in these meionocreodont alopecoids is 
relatively much larger than in the megalocreodont forms ; indicative in all probability 
of their affinity with' Otocyon , in which all the three true molars are present ; the 
second of the series being relatively large. 
1 Op. eit., p. 267. 
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