On a Molar of a Pliocene Type of Equus from Nubia

Abstract

A small collection of mammalian remains, obtained during the late Soudan expedition by Brigade-Surgeon Archer at Wadi Halfa and other places in Nubia, has been submitted to my notice by Dr. Woodward. Many of the specimens are evidently of comparatively recent origin; but those from Wadi Halfa are in much the same mineral condition as the bones from the Upper Pliocene of the Val d'Arno in Tuscany, or the Lower Pleistocene of the Narbada valley in India. Among these remains are several specimens belonging to a large species of Bos or allied genus, which do not admit of any attempt at specific determination; but they also comprise an upper molar of an Equus , which is of very considerable interest. It may be well to recall that so long ago as 1865 the late Dr. Falconer described, in the Society's Journal, part of the left maxilla of a Hippopotamus obtained from fluviatile beds at Kalábshi (Kalábshee or Kalábsheh), a village situated on the Nile a short distance above the first cataract at Assouan, and about 150 miles north of Wadi Halfa, which is at the second, or great cataract. Dr. Falconer referred his specimen, which he observed was in the same state of mineralization as the Val d'Arno fossils, to the existing H. amphibius , although remarking that it agreed in size with the teeth of the Pliocene Val d'Arno form, which at that time was regarded as specifically distinct. The specimen forming the subject of the present communication (figured from the