On the extinct Fossil Viverrine Fox of Œningen, showing its specific characters and affinities to the Family Viverridæ

Abstract

In compliance with the request of Sir R. Murchison, I have examined the fossil Fox described and figured in Dr. Mantell9s appendix to the ‘Memoir on the Œningen Deposits,’ in which formation was discovered that interesting and remarkably perfect specimen*. The number and kind of teeth in the fossil are there shown ( loc. cit. p. 291) to agree with the dental formula of the Fox and the rest of the genus Canis of Linnaeus. On comparing the well-preserved specimens of the teeth in the right ramus of the lower jaw, the inner surfaces of which are exposed in the right moiety of the skeleton, with the corresponding teeth of a Common Fox ( Canis Vulpes , Linn.) of equal size with the fossil, the following well-marked differences are seen. The first premolar (fig. 1. p 1) is relatively smaller, the third ( p 3) and fourth ( p 4) relatively larger than in the Fox, and all the premolars are placed closer together, and occupy, therefore, less space in the fossil than in the Common Fox, the Arctic Fox, or the Italian Fox ( Canis melanogaster *). The fossil Canis differs also from these and from every existing species of Dog, Wolf and Jackal with which I have been able to compare it, in the greater development of the anterior and posterior tubercles at the base of the crown of the third and fourth premolars. The singular Hyaenoid subgenus of Canis , represented by the South African species ( Lycao pictus ), presents the above character of the fossil,