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Show 1904.] REMAINS OF ANTHRACOTHERIUM. 457 taining lignite-deposits in various localities, very different opinions have been held at different times. The Italian geologist General Albert De La Marmora, who was the first to mention the coal, ascribed it to the Lower Cretaceous (Neocomian) *, and was followed in this determination by Bouvy f. The only writer who correctly guessed the age was Jules Haiine, who, from the examination of Molluscs in the lignite deposit, was inclined to assign it to the epoch of the " gypses de Provence," which are of Oligocene age. He was positive in asserting that the coal overlies the Nummulitic formation, adding that this circumstance was well known to the miners themselves J. All the subsequent writers, however-Bouvy §, Vidal |j, Her-mite ^[, de Lapparent **-have considered these lacustrine beds to be Lower Eocene, taking it for granted that the Nummulitic (Middle Eocene) overlies the freshwater deposits. This must be either an error of observation, or else the reputed Nummulites were not Nummulites at all. Mr. Thomas was successful in obtaining, in the house of a miner at Inca, several remains of Anthracotherium, which, according to information received, were from the upper part of a lignite-mine at Sineu. Majorca. A complete jaw, believed to be of the same animal, was said to be in the " Academy of Madrid." The more important of these remains, here exhibited, are two more or less complete right and left second upper molars, and a beautifully preserved penultimate right upper premolar (p>. 2) (PI. X X I X . fig. 1). It is on these teeth that the specific determination rests. The molars (PL X X I X . figs. 2 & 3) agree perfectly in size and shape with a second upper molar described and figured by G. Cuvier ff, and forming part of one of the type specimens of Anthracotherium magnum from the lignite of Caclibona, near Savona (Liguria). The premolar agrees with a similar tooth of the same deposit figured by Gastaldi %%. A. magnum is the predominant mammalian species in the lignite of Caclibona,; there remains little doubt, therefore, that the lacustrine deposit of Majorca is of the same age. The Italian deposit is usually placed in the Upper- Oligocene ; however, the mammals * Albert De La Marmora, " Observations geologiques sur les deux iles Baleares, Majorqueet Minorque," M e m . B. Accad. Scienze Torino, vol. xxxviii. p. 5t (1835). f P. Bouvy, " Besena geognostica de la isla de Mallorca y descripcion de la situacion y explotacion de la ulla del terreno secundario de esta isla," Bevista Minera, t. iii. pp. 174, 204, 346 (1852). Quoted from Jules Haime's paper. X Jules Haime, " Notice sur la Geologie de Pile Majorque,' Bull. Soc.Geol.de France, (2) xii. pp. 734-752 (1855). § Bouvy, " Note sur les Lignites des iles Baleares," Bull. Soc. Geol. de France, (2) xiv. pp. 770-774 (1857). || Louis M . Vidal, " Excursion geologica por la Isla de Mallorca," Boletin de la Comision del Mapa Geologico de Espafia, vi. p. 9 (1879). *[ Op. cit. A translation of Hermite's ': Etudes geologiques " has been published in vol. xv. (1888) of the Boletin de la Comision del Mapa Geologico de Espafia. ** A. de Lapparent, ' Traite de Geologie,' fourth edition, p. 1436 (1900). ft ' Ossemens fossiles,' vol. iii. pp. 399, 400, pi. 80. fig. 1 (1822). XX Mem. Ace. Scze. Torino, (2) xxiv. pi. vi. fig. 6 (1868). |
