Abstract
ABSTRACT The first skull and an additional mandible of Prosthennops elmorei White are described and the species is transferred to Mylohyus Cope on the basis of several derived characters including molariform premolars, post-canine diastema length greater than length of cheek tooth series, and posterior position of the orbit. A distinctive feature of this species is its laterad projecting, inflated triangular zygomatic process. In other known Mylohyus skulls (all from the Pleistocene) the zygoma is not expanded into a laterad projecting process, but is inflated anterior to the glenoid fossa and its ventral surface provides a broad origin for M. masseter lateralis. The wing-like zygomata of M. elmorei are probably primitive for Mylohyus. M. elmorei occurs in the upper member of the Bone Valley Formation of Florida. On the basis of associated taxa it is very late Hemphillian (early Pliocene) in age. Thus it is the oldest known species of Mylohyus and more than doubles the antiquity of that genus.
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