OCR Text |
Show 382 DR. E. LONNBERG ON A [Apr. 3, hairs exhibit the same shade from their tips to their roots, and closely mingle with the completely red hairs. The length of this hair is different in different parts. Where it is longest it measures a little more than 0*045 m., but in some places 003 m. to 0-025 m. or even less. The hair is laid in different directions, as seen in the figure, and cannot have formed a smooth covering on the animal. The size of the individual hairs is variable, but there is no typical wool or underfur. The thickest hairs (fig. 2, p. 381) measure 80-100 M in optical section, but taper gradually towards both ends. They are flattened and wavy. The medulla occupies the largest part of the hair, so that the cortex does not measure more than 10-13 p in optical section ; but towards the root the medulla becomes scantier and is finally completely broken up. The thinner hairs cannot be classified as wool or underfur. Their diameter in optical section varies from 45 to 55 p. Their structure is exactly the same as that of the coarser hair. They are flattened and wavy, gradually tapering to a tip which has no medulla ; but their stem exhibits a large medulla, so that the cortex of that part usually measures only 8-10 p. The cortex is, as a rule, thicker on one side, and the cuticle covering it is scaly, so that the edge of the optical margin assumes a more or less distinct serrated aprearanee. The finer hairs are about ten times as numerous as the coarse hairs ; and on the skin the coarser hair is not very conspicuous, the less so as intermediate sizes can also be seen. In attempting to determine to what animal the piece of skin thus described may be referred, it is necessary first to consider the mammals of which remains have been found in the same stratum as this specimen. Of these, of course, Grypotherium is at once excluded, neither the structure of its skin nor that of its hair admitting of any comparison. TheG-uanaco may also be dismissed at the same time, since its fine wool or fleece bears no resemblance to the hair of this skin, as shown even by Guanaco remains associated with it. The large Cat of Cueva Eberhardt has been identified by Erland Nordenskjold (with the concurrence of the eminent Danish zoologist, Herluf Winge) as a large variety of Felis onca \ If this great extinct Jaguar had the same black-spotted appearance as the recent one, it is most improbable that so large a piece of skin should have been preserved without any black hairs remaining attached to it. If, however, the extinct jaguar had a different fur-colour, it may be assumed, with a high degree of probability, that the structure of its furry covering was similar to that of the recent Jaguar. But the fur of the latter is distinguished from that of this piece of skin very readily by beino-shorter and having a fine underfur. This underfur of the Jaguar does not measure more than 15-30 p in optical section, and has quite another structure, being completely devoid of a central 1 This is the animal called by Santiago Roth "Yejnisch listai".(" El Mamifero misterioso de la Patagonia Grypotherium domesticnm,'' jor Rodolfo Hauthal, Santiago Roth & Robert Lehmann-Nitsehe, Revista Mus. La Plata, vol. ix. 1899' p. 441). |