BUJvOTIIEKIA. 
8() 
lomys, tlie type of the last suborder, presents several points of resemblance 
to the Tillodonta. 
The affinities of the groups here combined under one ordinal caption 
are very divergent. The order is generalized, and, as snch, does not pre¬ 
sent the peculiar features of the Chuoptera, Bodentia, and Edentata, but is 
so far negative in its character as to preclude more than subordinate subdi¬ 
vision. While the existing division Insectivora maintains the typical charac¬ 
ters, the Dermoptera, also existing, are doubtless relics of the group from 
which the Chiroptera derive their ancestry. The Tillodonta present some 
kind of affinity to the Rodents, while the Tceniodonta present us with a point 
of connection with the Edentata. The discovery of this fact is particularly 
welcome, as we have not previously had any hint of the relations between 
that anomalous order and the remainder of the Mammalia. So far, I have 
only indicated relationships to smooth-brained (lissencephalous) orders. 
The connections with the Gyrencepliala (or Educabilia) are quite as close, 
namely, as already pointed out, through the Mesodonta to the Prosimice and 
the Qiiadrumana, and through the Creodonta to the Carnivora. 
Standing in this structural relation to different existing types, and in 
an antecedent relation as to time, it is easy to look on the Bunotlieria as 
ancestral to some of them. In the fii’st place, the Insectivora represent them 
in the existing fauna. The Creodonta are probably the ancestors of the 
Carnivora and the Mesodonta of the Prosimice. This ancestry is rendered 
almost certain by the recent discovery, by Drs. A. Milne-Edwards and 
Grandidier, of the affinity existing between the Prosimice and the Carnivora.. 
Before the discovery of the species and genera which form the subjects 
of this report, I wrote* as follows: “I trust that I have made it sufficiently 
obvious that the primitive genera of this division of Mammals must have 
been Bunodonts* with pentadactyle plantigrade feet. * * We may antici¬ 
pate the discovery of such a genus, and believe that it Avill not be widely 
removed from the Eocene Hyopsodus, or perhaps Acluenodon. * * But 
it will be more than this: it cannot be far removed from the primitive 
Carnivore and the primitive Quadrumane. The Carnivora are all modified 
Bunodonts, and the lower forms ( Ursus, Procyon, &c.) are pentadactyle 
* On the Homologies and Origin of the Types of Molar Teeth of Mammalia Edu- 
cahiliii. Journal Academy Philadelphia, 1874, [). 20. 
