| OCR Text |
Show 1902.] ON MUSTELA PAL^EATTICA. 109 Although in a recently published work Mr. Lydekker had suggested the possibility of the Siberian Elk proving distinct, so far as he was aware it had not yet received a name. An Elk with antlers not unlike those of the specimens exhibited had been described in 1847 by Rouillier, in Fischer de Waldheim's ' Jubiheum,' under the name of Alces resupinatus, based on a skull from a Pleistocene deposit in Russia. There did not appear, however, to be any characters by which that specimen could be distinguished from young skulls of the Scandinavian Elk. Under these circumstances Mr. Lydekker proposed to name the Siberian Elk Alces bedfordice, in honour of the wife of the President of the Society. This species would be distinguished from both the Scandinavian and American races of Alces machlis by its non-palmated antlers, which carried only four or five tines on each side. The complete specimen exhibited would form the type. The occurrence in Siberia of an Elk with antlers of the simple type of those exhibited was a fact of considerable interest, since that country was probably the centre whence both the European and American races of the true Elk were evolved. [P.S.-Since this exhibition took place Mr. Lydekker had seen five other pairs of Elk-antlers- from Siberia, all of the same form. Three of these specimens, together with the two exhibited, had been acquired by Mr. Walter Rothschild. \ The following papers were read :- 1. On Mustela paiceattica from the Upper Miocene of Pikermi and Samos. By C. I. F O R S Y T H M A J O R. [Received December 17. 1901.] (Plate VII.1) The type of Weithofer's Mustela pcdceattica2, from Pikermi, is in the Vienna Museum. It is represented by a badly crushed skull (of which, however, the teeth, minus the incisors, are very well preserved), by the two almost intact mandibular rami, and by part of the skeleton. The whole was kept together and preserved from total destruction by being lodged between the rami of a Hipparion mandible. The characteristic features of this species are furnished by the conformation of the upper and the talon of the anterior lower molar. Whilst the posterior upper premolar (p. 1) bears the characteristic features of Mustela, in its elongate outlines and the i For explanation of the Plate, see p. 114. 2 A. Weithofer, " Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Fauna von Pikermi bei Atheu." rBeitr. Pal. Oesterreich-Ungarns, vi. pp. 226-231, pi. x. figs. 1-11 (1888).] |
