. Catalogue of casts of fossils, from the principal museums of Europe and America, with short descriptions and illustrations. Fossils. MAMMALIA. No. 5. Dryopitheciis Fontani, Lartet. Lower Jaw, with pedestal. Of this extinct Monkey, Sir Charles Lyell states " that in anatomical structure, as well as in stature, the D. came nearer to man than any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known to ; Prof. Owen, however, arrives at a different conclusion ; and the generally received opinion is, that the D. stood intermediate between the Gib- bon and Semnopithecus. It was
. Catalogue of casts of fossils, from the principal museums of Europe and America, with short descriptions and illustrations. Fossils. MAMMALIA. No. 5. Dryopitheciis Fontani, Lartet. Lower Jaw, with pedestal. Of this extinct Monkey, Sir Charles Lyell states " that in anatomical structure, as well as in stature, the D. came nearer to man than any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known to ; Prof. Owen, however, arrives at a different conclusion ; and the generally received opinion is, that the D. stood intermediate between the Gib- bon and Semnopithecus. It was therefore far removed from the human type, for the Quadrumana recede from man in the following order, making cranial character the test: Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orang, Gibbon. The canines are less developed than in the Gorilla, and in this respect the D. makes a nearer approach to Man. The fore part of the coronoid process is slightly convex, as in the Gibbon ; in Man, the Gorilla and Chimpan- zee, it is concave. This interesting fossil was discovered by M. Fontan, in 1856, in the fresh water (upper) Miocene at Saint Gaudens, Southern France, and is preserved in the Museum of the Garden of Plants, Paris. Price, $ Order 3 â Carnivora. All the Carnivores have incisors, canines and molars â the canines being always longer than the other teeth, and showing at a glance the nature of their appointed food. The molars graduate from a trenchant (as in the Cat) to a tuberculate form (as in the Bear) in proportion as the food deviates from one strictly of flesh to one of a more miscellane- ous kind. The more the animal feeds on living prey, the less numerous the molars. The Felidse have f -| premolars, and | i molars; the Ca- nidse have p | !, m -| f ; the Ursidse p â £ -£, m The molars of the Insectivores are studded with conical points ; those of fruit-eating Bats have flattened crowns. Clavicles are generally rudimentary or wanting; but Bats and Insectivores have them well
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectfossils, bookyear1866
