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pg c055a: Fourth annual report of the Geological Survey of Texas Publication 5235917-4.

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55

of the huge Mammalia that existed during the Blanco epoch. Its dental structure is adapted for crushing bones, while its canine teeth served their usual purpose of tearing into fragments the carcasses of the camels, horses, etc., that formed its food. The corresponding parts are similar in dimensions to those of the spotted hyena (Crocuta maculata).

FELIS, Linn.

A single species of Felidæ may be provisionally referred to this genus. The specimens which represent it consist of the second, third, and fourth metacarpals of the left side, a second metatarsal of the same side, an entocuneiform, an unciform, a calcaneum, the arch of a lumbar vertebra, and two superior canine teeth, found together, and a scapholunar bone found near at hand. The canine teeth indicate a mature animal.

The metapodials of the species here described are relatively shorter than in any species of Felidæ known to me. There were evidently five digits in the manus, and four in the pes. The distal extremities of the penultimate phalanges are not unsymmetrical, as in the larger cats of the genus Uncia, as the lion, etc.

FELIS HILLANUS, Cope.

Sp. nov. Plate XIV, Figures 1-11.

The superior canine tooth is large, but the greatest diameter is seen in the root at its inferior third. The crown has the horizontal section at the base a horizontal oval, much less convex on the inner than on the outer side. There are well marked obtuse cutting edges anteriorly and posteriorly, the anterior terminating at the base in a slightly projecting angle. Enamel smooth.

The separate neural arch of a vertebra presents the postzygapophyses. The articular faces of the latter are vertical, and not convex. The spine is of moderate elevation, and its base occupies the entire neural arch. Its anterior edge is subacute.

The distal face of the unciform is as broad as long; its posterior process is rather short. The entocuneiform is short, narrow, and deep anteroposteriorly, and the distal articular surface is crescentic. The metacarpals are rather robust, and the second is about four-fifths the length of the equal third and fourth. The diaclast is present on the third as well as the fourth, as in other Felidæ, but that of the third is not overroofed on the anterior side, as is that of the fourth. The facet on the anterior side of the external proximal fossa of the fourth, shows that the diaclast is present on the fifth metacarpal. The proximal articular surface of the"


I propose this term for the interlocking process of a metapodial which occupies the external fossa of the adjacent metapodial in most Carnivora.

 

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