SUMMARY:In the burial chamber M4 of the Van-Yoncatepe necropolis in eastern Anatolia, dated to the beginning of the first millennium before our time, fox skeletal remains have been discovered together with human skeletal remains. The fox remains consist of two skulls and a large number of skeletal (postcranial) bones. Examination of the material led us to the conclusion that five foxes had been buried in the chamber. Craniometric and osteometric measurements were carried out on the bones, and estimations of shoulder height and body weight have been calculated. Evaluation of all quantitative and qualitative data and comparison with modern fox species led to identification of the remains as red fox (Vulpes vulpes).
Chamitataxus avitus gen. et sp. nov. is a primitive American badger recovered from late Miocene fossil-bearing sediments of the Chamita Formation in northern New Mexico, USA. The holotype and only known specimen is an almost complete skull with left and right I1-M1. Description of Chamitataxus avitus is facilitated by high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (HRXCT), which provides nondestructive visualization of the internal morphology. Features such as the hollowing of the mastoid region and the septate and greatly inflated tympanic bulla of Chamitataxus avitus are made visible and provide evidence supporting Taxidiinae. The invasion of the nasal bone by a small sinus, the nasoconchal sinus, is documented for the first time in both Taxidea taxus and Chamitataxus avitus. The HRXCT data complement information obtained from external and more traditional examination of the skull. The P4 does not exhibit the development of a medial shelf and hypocone observed in Pliotaxidea and Taxidea. This is evidence for the acquisition of a P4 medial shelf and hypocone by taxidiine badgers independent from that of meline (Eurasian) badgers. The morphological information obtained from this study provides new insight into the evolution and ecomorphology of taxidiine badgers.
In this Part the author gives additional cranial and dental characters of the extinct marsupial carnivore,
Thylacoleo
, deduced from examination of better-preserved fossils, obtained from freshwater deposits in Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. The forepart of the skull, wanting in the first-described specimen from similar deposits in the province of Victoria, is preserved in the present specimen, showing the premaxillary bones, which are relatively larger than in placental felines. Each bone has three teeth, of which the foremost is developed into a tusk, the second and third being very small.
In this paper the author describes teeth of a new genus of Mammal, representing a species of the size of the
Thylacoleo
or
Nototherium
, specimens of which teeth have been discovered in three distinct and remote localities in Australia. In shape the teeth resemble the scalpriform incisors of the upper jaw of the in the microscopic structure of the dentine there is a nearer resemblance to that in the incisor of the large extinct form of wombat (
Phascolomus
). Figures of the teeth, and of their dentinal structure magnified, are appended to the text. The author remarks that the first indication of since restored species,
e. g
., of the
Diprotodon
, as a large extinct Marsupial, was a portion of a tooth, and corresponding accessions of fossil remains may be expected to lead to a like reconstruction of the present animal. He is indebted to E. P. Ramsay, Esq., F. L. S., for casts of the first found specimens of the teeth in question to which the transmitter had appended the name; subsequently the author received, through the kindness of C. H. Hartman, Esq., of Toonromba, Queensland, a large portion of the tooth itself.
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