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Show 1885.] DR. ST. G. MIVART ON THE ARCTOIDEA. 369 obliquely truncated terminally, with inferior nostrils. There is only a median nasal groove, but there is also a vertical groove on either side of it. Tail very short, but clothed with long hairs. Ears with quite a rudimentary pinna; a small vertical fold behind the meatus. The palms and soles are naked. The claws are much longer ou the manus than on the pes; the former are very long, but not quite so long relatively as in Taxidea. There are 14 or 15 dorsal, 6 or 5 lumbar, 3 sacral, and 12 caudal vertebrae. As to the relative proportion of parts with body, the humerus is larger than in any other Carnivore, the next longest being that of Ailurus. The tail is shorter than that of Arctonyx. The skull is nearly relatively as long as that of Nasua. As in Taxidea, the pectoral and pelvic limbs are of equal length. The transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae are very short. The 12th dorsal vertebra has its spine vertical. The scapula has its postero-superior angle somewhat pronounced. The metacromion is very small, but a similarly directed process extends backwards from higher up the spine to the scapula, as if the metacromion process had slipped up. The humerus, however, has an olecranal as well as a condyloid perforation. Both the pollux and hallux are very well developed. In addition to the cranial characters already described by Prof. Flower1, it may be noted that the palate has laterally a "certain swollen appearance, reminding us of Nasua. The mastoid is much swollen, but does not depend below the meatus auditorius externus. As in Arctonyx so here, the paroccipital process is remote from the bulla. As in Arctonyx, again, the muzzle has a Nasua-like aspect wheu seen in profile. The supraorbital is relatively, as well as absolutely, smaller. Altogether the skull is Arctonyx-hke, because, though the bullae are more bullate, yet they are but slightly bullate considering the small size of the animal. The zygomata are weaker relatively than in Arctonyx. The meatus auditorius externus is very large relatively. As in Arctonyx, there is no malar postorbital process ; and the postorbital process from the frontal is still more blunt than it is in that genus. As in Arctonyx, the glenoid foramen is much posterior to the glenoid surface. The mandible has a larger and more oblique symphysis than in any form yet described. It is larger even than in Eupleres, and the two rami have anchylosed together. Moreover the symphysis is not only long, but also broad and conspicuous. The angle is pushed up, as in Arctonyx, with a strongly everted margin running down from it to the place of the subangular process, and seeming to represent a toughened tract which exists in Arctonyx. Molar formula = P. \, M . \. The incisors are exceptionally broad relatively. The grinders are formed quite on the Arctonyx type, though their cusps are generally more acute, and the first upper true molar is relatively smaller and 1 P. Z. S. 1869, p. 12. |