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Show 1891.] DR. C. J. FORSYTH M A J O R O N FOSSIL GIRAFFID.E. 319 As regards the horns of Samotherium, I have to state an interesting fact. In the skull of an aged specimen of Samotherium, just above the orbits where the large horns are placed in the horned specimens, there occur very small processes separated by a suture from the underlying part of the frontal. It appears that we have before us the same sort of processes as in the living Giraffe. On examination of the large horned skull of the Samotherium, a sort of burr is visible on the anterior and interior base of the horn-cores, which apparently corresponds to the coalesced suture. The skull in which the small processes appear above the orbits is evidently that of an aged female, and I think the explanation to be given is that in aged individuals of the female sex, male characters occasionally make their appearance. Rutimeyer has recorded that in an aged female of the Giraffe a sort ofstalactitic crust, as he terms it, corresponding to the dermal median process of the male, sometimes covers the medial " horn " 1. I do not propose to enter here into any detail respecting the dentition and the limb-bones of the Samotherium. As to the first, it suffices to remark that the teeth differ from those of the Giraffe only in slight particulars. Whilst the limb-bones in their relative proportions come nearer to what is the rule amongst Ruminants, the few cervical vertebrae collected indicate that the Samotherium had a far less elongated neck than the Giraffe. In the British Museum is preserved a portion of the skull from the ossiferous deposit of Maragha iu Persia, which I have identified as the Samotherium boissieri. A similar remark may be made in reference to some remains from the same deposits, nearly complete as to the dentition, very imperfect as to the skull, lately described by Rodler and Weithofer under the name of Alcicephalus neumayri2. The skull being so incomplete, there still remains some doubt as to its specific identification with Samotherium boissieri. 3. PALCEOTRAGUS. A near ally of the Samotherium is a ruminant from Pikermi described by Gaudry as an Antelope under the name of Palceotragus rouenii3, as a reference to the figure will at once show. Gaudry entertains some doubts as to the systematic position of Palceotragus ; he defines it:-" Ruminant qui a des comes comme les antilopes,quoi-qu'il differe de ces animaux par la plupart de ses caracteres "4; and farther on," Si je considere ses cornes, je le classe aupres des antilopes, mais je doute de ce rapprochement, quand je regarde ses molaires semblables a cedes des cerfs et de la girafe, son occipital qui rappelle celui d'un ane, sa region parietale allongee et rectangulaire," etc.5 Rutimeyer is less hesitating as to the place which Palceotragus 1 Riitimeyer, I. c. p. 66, note. Eodler und Weithofer, ' Die Wiederkauer der Fauna von Maragha,' pp. 2-9, Taf. i. fig. 1, Taf. ii., Taf. iii. figs. 1-6, Taf. iv. figs. 1-4. 3 A. Gaudry, ' Animaux fossiles et Geol. de l'Attique,' pp. 264-267, pi. xiv. B c. p. 26-1. 5 L. c. p. 267. 22* |
