V.—Rodents from the Pleistocene of the Western Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Nice.—Among the mammalian remains enumerated by Risso from the bone breccia of the Castle Catinat at Nice, are bones and teeth of ‘Lagomys’. Remains of the same genus have been more recently mentioned by Rivière, from a palæolithic deposit discovered by him in a small cave, Lympia, inside the town of Nice.Mentone. — On pl. xvii (“Faune des grottes de Menton”), fig. 10, of Rivière's well-known publication, is represented a left mandibular ramus of a “Lagomys d'assez petite taille,” according to the explanation of the plate. In the dimensions, which are by no means small for a member of the family, as well as in the contours of the ramus, it corresponds with the Prolagus from Corsica; it certainly belongs to the latter genus, and not to the recent Ogotona (Lagomys). The text makes no mention of this rodent as occurring in the caves of Mentone, so that further confirmation seemed desirable. This has now been obtained in the most satisfactory manner, Professor Boule having found Prolagus in the “Grotte du Prince,” near Mentone. In his preliminary notice on the results of the excavations, this rodent is stated to occur together with the rabbit, etc., in strata underlying an Upper Quaternary fauna (Rhinoceros tichorhinus, reindeer, ibex, marmot, etc.), and resting on deposits containing a Lower Quaternary fauna (Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros Mercki, Hippopotamus).