| OCR Text |
Show 200 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON NEW [Nov. 3, some way behind m.3 Bulla? but little swollen. Lower jaw remarkably high anteriorly, the usual deep hollow in front of the molars largely filled up. Incisors very peculiar in that while the upper ones are of about normal breadth and depth, the lower are quite dispro-portionally narrow and deep; in most Rodents the upper and lower incisors are of approximately equal transverse dimensions, but here the two lower ones combined are of only the same breadth in front as a single upper one, while in depth the lower teeth exceed the upper by a third, and nearly resemble in shape those of Daubentonia. Their roots are carried unusually far up at the back of the jaws, so that their basal inflation is at the level of the yoke between the coronoid and condylar processes. Molars very small, their length less than one-fifth the basilar length, and the palate between them about twice their breadth. Their lamina? directly transverse, with simple raised enamel-edges and concave dentine-spaces; last lamina of m.1 and m.2 each with a small additional internal ring inserted in front of it, the homologue of a supplementary cusp; lower molars with four, three, and two simple lamina? respectively. Type, Anisomys imitator. This genus seemed to be even less allied to any known one than Hyomys, and it could not be said what were its nearest relations. Perhaps when young specimens were obtained, so that unworn molars could be examined, some light would be shed on this problem. In any case the genus might be readily distinguished by the peculiar characters of incisors and molars above detailed. ANISOMYS IMITATOR, sp. n. (Plate XXIII. figs. 1 a-\ e.) Size and other external characters remarkably like those of the large Uromys {U. validus or papuanus), with which it is associated. Fur short and coarse ; hairs of back about 10-12 m m. in length, unmixed with longer piles. General colour above coarsely mixed blackish and fawn or buffy, the resulting mixture approaching " mummy-brown " of Ridgway. Under surface dull buffy white, the hairs slightly darker at their bases. Head rather more greyish than back, heavily lined with black. Eyes surrounded by indistinct black rings. Ears of medium size, their fine hairs blackish. Arms and legs dark grizzled grey, the inner sides rather lighter; hands and feet brown, becoming whitish at the ends of the digits; claws rather delicate and sharply pointed; palms and soles naked, with large smooth pads : fifth hind toe reaching nearly to the end of the first phalanx of the fourth. Tail fairly long, set with medium-sized scales set in alternating rows, and averaging about 9 to the centimetre ; very thinly hairy, the short whitish hairs becoming . rather longer towards the tip; its colour dark brown for its basal fourth, the remainder yellowish white. Skull smooth and rounded; nasals and premaxillary processes |
