Jaw Fragments Research Articles

Improved intermaxillary wiring.

IMMOBILIZATION of fractured jaw fragments and fixation in correct dental occlusion by means of intermaxillary wiring was first advocated by Gilmer in 1887. A review of the literature over the past 50 years points out that a considerable amount of effort and ingenuity has been directed towards the treatment of mandibular fractures. 1 There is presently available a wide variety of techniques and apparatus which might be used for this purpose. In spite of their diversity, all current techniques of closed reduction are still based on Gilmer's original concept. Between 80% and 90% of all fractured mandibles are treated with some form of intermaxillary fixation. 1-3 The remainder are treated by circumferential wiring or open reduction methods. Intermaxillary wiring may be defined as the attachment of the mandibular dental arch to the maxillary dental arch by means of wires or a combination of wires and elastics. The purpose of this

An Unusual Ungulate Jaw from the Pliocene of Texas

Recent excavations at the Coffee Ranch quarry, nine miles north of Miami, Hemphill County, Texas, have yielded a quantity of fossil bones of early-middle Pliocene age. This site is the locality 20 of Reed and Longnecker (1932) and probably has furnished the best known sample of the Hemphillian fauna (see Matthew and Stirton, 1930a, 1930b, Burt, 1931, Matthew, 1932). Where worked by Midwestern University, there is a layer of volcanic ash more than 6 feet in thicknss, and dirctly under the ash bed a layer of glauconitic clay varying from one to four feet in depth. Beneath the clay bed is an unconsolidated greenish sand, six feet or more in thickness and with numerous pockets rich in fossil bones. Past workers seem to have devoted most attention to the greenish sand layer. The clay bed contains numerous fragments of fossil bones, mostly greatly broken and rarely more than a fraction of an inch in diameter. Among the fragments of larger bones are some teeth and jaw fragments of insectivors, rabbits, rodents and small carnivors, with an occasional tooth or jaw of a larger mammal. Through the kindness of the Hardin Foundation of Wichita Falls, Texas, and the Midwestern University Faculty Research Committee, funds were made available to permit the quarrying and washing of the clay, to recover the remains of small mammals present. In the course of quarrying operations, a most unusual ungulate lower jaw was discovered. The incisors and the extreme anterior tip of the jaw are missing, as is the ramus posterior to the last molar. The cheek-tooth dention, however, is complete. The teeth had all been broken off just above the roots, and were firmly encased in clay matrix. The remainder of the jaw was collected in another large piece of clay. The breaks were clean and the teeth fitted closely to the broken roots. The jaw is unusual in the presence of alveoli for seven cheekteeth. As exposed when first discovered, the roots showed clearly and all four premolars have double roots. In the laboratory, the jaw was sketched before the teeth were restored (fig. 1).

A cleft adult mandible and the nine other lower jaw fragments from Makapansgat.

A cleft adult mandible and the nine other lower jaw fragments from Makapansgat.

The Deciduous Premolars of the Oligocene Heteromyid Rodent Helyiscomys

The discovery of upper and lower jaws of Heliscomys vetus Cope, an Oligocene heteromyid, that have deciduous premolars in addition to the permanent dentition provides information about the occlusal patterns of the deciduous teeth, and the place of these teeth in the developmental history of Heliscomys. The specimens consist of a fragment of right maxillary with dP4, P4-M3 (K.U. 10372), and a fragment of right jaw with dP,, P4-M1 (K.U. 10373) collected from silts of Middle Oligocene age in SW 1/4 Sec. 12, T 11 N, R 54 W, Logan County, Colorado. These specimens have been presented to the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. An additional upper deciduous premolar was known and studied. However, this specimen was destroyed by accident.

Tooth‐Size, Body‐Size and “Giant” Fossil Man

OVER the past twenty years there have been repeated discoveries in Southeast Asia of very large fossil teeth variously attributed to a protohominid or euhominid of truly extraordinary size. The first of these finds was the famous drugstore teeth, purchased in Hong Kong between 1935 and 1939 (but probably from Kwangsi Province in South China), and assigned by Von Koenigswald (1935) to the provisional genus Gigantopithecus. Next in order of discovery came two mandibular fragments with attached teeth, recovered from Sangiran, near Solo in Java in 1939 and 1941. The Sangiran tooth-jaw fragments were entered in the provisional genus Meganthropus (Weidenreich 1945:16). The most recent find, made at Luntsai mountain, Kwangsi Province, South China, occurred in 1956 (Pei 1957). Though metrical data were not given by Pei, it may be inferred that the teeth of the Luntsai fossil were at least 50 percent longer and wider than those of contemporary Europeans or Asiatics. On the basis of morphology and size together, Von Koenigswald decided that the Hong Kong and Sangiran teeth and jaw fragments came from giant

Nimravides, a New Genus of Felidae from the Pliocene of California, Texas and Oklahoma

The Arnett local fauna from Ellis County, Oklahoma (see Kitts, 1957) includes two remarkably well preserved and complete felid lower jaws. Investigation has revealed that these specimens are very similar to and probably conspecific with material from the Higgins local fauna which has been referred to Machairodus Kaup (see Hesse, 1940) and material from the Black Hawk Ranch local fauna which has been referred to Pseudaelurus Gervais (see Macdonald, 1948). A study of the Arnett, Black Hawk Ranch and Higgins specimens reveals that they are certainly not referable to Machairodus and that, although they bear a number of marked resemblances to the lower jaw of Pseudaelurus , their generic separation from this genus is almost certainly justified. I should like to express my gratitude to Dr. Donald E. Savage of the University of California who allowed me complete access to the specimens in his charge and to Dr. J. R. Macdonald who permitted me to reproduce two figures from his paper on the Black Hawk Ranch carnivores. The plate was prepared by Mr. Irwin Gold. This study was supported by a grant from the faculty research fund of the University of Oklahoma. The following abbreviations are used: O.U.S.M.—J. Willis Stovall Museum of Science and History, University of Oklahoma; U.C.M.P.—Museum of Paleontology, University of California. All measurements are in millimeters. > Family FELIDAE Gray, 1821 > > Subfamily Nimravinae Trouessart, 1885 > > Nimravides gen. nov. > > (Figs. 1, 2; Plate I) Fig. 1 Nimravides thinobates (Macdonald). Type, U.C.M.P. No. 34513, right lower jaw fragment with P3 and M1; a, crown view; b, lateral view; ×½. (After Macdonald). Fig. 2 Nimravides thinobates (Macdonald). U.C.M.P. No. 34512, skull; a, palatal view. b, lateral view. ×½. (After Macdonald). Plate I Nimravides thinobates (Macdonald). a and b , O.U.S.M. No. 36-4-S13, left lower jaw; a , crown view of cheek …

A Saber-Tooth Cat from South-Central Kansas

This new discovery, a fragment of the right jaw containing the fourth premolar and first molar (No. 9977, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas), was collected by Clyde T. Williams of Wichita, Kansas, in the W. 1/2 sec. 10, T. 34 S., R. 14 W., Barber County, Kansas. A definitive study of the Pleistocene geology in Barber County has not been completed, but observations to date indicate that the specimen came from gravel beds deposited in the last half of the Pleistocene-probably during early Wisconsinan time. An earlier age for the specimen seems unlikely, but an age as early as Illinoian should not be ruled out yet. No. 9977 lacks the anterior and posterior ends of the jaw. The fracture at the anterior end is diagonal, extending from a point 13 mm. anterior to the premolar downward and forward to a point 40 mm. anterior to the tooth row. Thus, enough of the upper border of the jaw is present to show that the third premolar was not present, and enough of the lower part of the jaw is present to indicate that the mental foramen was 20 to 25 mm. anterior to the tooth row. Nothing can be determined concerning the depth of the jaw below the diastema. The rounded appearance (transversely) of the border below the diastema suggests that the flange and symphysis were not particularly well-developed. The deep concave curvature (anteroposteriorly) of the lower border suggests that the diastema might have been relatively shorter than the diastema of specimens from Rancho La Brea. Matthew (1918) noted this same feature in a specimen, Smilodon nebrascensis from Hay Springs Quarry, Sheridan County, Nebraska. Both teeth on No. 9977 have the tips of the crowns fractured and lost, and little can be ascertained concerning the cutting edges of the teeth or the cusps. Posteriorly, a vertical break behind the molar left approximately two centimeters of the masseteric fossa. The dimensions of the specimen are:

New Aplodontid Rodent from Montana Oligocene

The Chicago Natural History Museum collection of Pipestone Springs Oligocene material contains two jaw fragments, an upper and a lower, originally collected by Dr. E. C. Olson and party in 1941, that represent a new form of rodent. It seems best to describe this form on the basis of these two specimens because the materials from Pipestone Springs are usually fragmentary and the deposits have been sufficiently investigated and reported upon so that it is unlikely that better materials will be soon available. Although the upper molars of the Pipestone specimen lack the prominent mesostyles that are generally characteristic of the Aplodontidae, the form is assigned to that family on the basis of general tooth structure and tooth relationships. Most of the peculiarities of the dental pattern in this new form are shared with one or another of the early Tertiary genera of aplodontids. The general tooth shape, the posteriorly diminishing tooth row, and the cross-crests and apical basins of the upper molars are all characteristic of the Aplodontidae. The discovery of an aplodontid in the Montana Oligocene extends our knowledge of the group in two respects. Aplodontids have been described from the Late Eocene and the Early Miocene, but no Oligocene forms have been previously reported. All American records of the family have been from the Pacific coastal states and Nevada. I wish to thank Bryan Patterson of the Chicago Natural History Museum for permission to study the specimens and Dr. E. C. Olson of the University of Chicago for advice and direction. Diagnosis .—Cheek teeth high crowned, rooted, lacking prominent styles or stylids. M1 and M2 approximately equal size, quadrangular; M3 smaller, subcircular. Hypocone and protocone of M1 and M2 subequal, separated by a deep persistent groove. Deep groove separating anteroloph and paracone. …

Remarks on Cynarctoides arcidens from the Miocene of Northeastern Colorado

In the summer of 1953 I collected several parts of a skull of Cynarctoides arcidens (Barbour and Cook) from early Hemingfordian beds (Martin Canyon local fauna, Pawnee Creek formation) in Sec. 22, T 11 N, R. 52 W, Logan County, Colorado. The specimen consisted of part of the left maxillary with P2-M1; fragment of the left lower jaw with M'-M2; fragment of the right lower jaw containing M2-M3; and damaged basicranial region (figure 1). This material has been presented to the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas and given the number 9970.

Two Cases of Dental Anomaly in Early Tertiary Mammals

All large collections of Recent mammals contain specimens which show anomalies in the dental formulae or in individual teeth although such specimens are proportionately rare. Similar anomalies are found also in fossil specimens although the number is less because fewer specimens are involved. Are these fossil specimens productive of taxonomic error? I have received the impression that this is not an uncommon question among neozoologists. Mistakes have been made, but the number of named as a result of this kind of misunderstanding of the evidence probably is insignificant among fossil mammals. On the other hand, many examples of dental anomaly or abnormality have been described from fossils, although these descriptions frequently have been buried in comprehensive monographs. Determination of these cases as such is based on the same principles as in Recent species. Two examples in the collections of the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, and previously undescribed, are given below. The first specimen is a fragment of left lower jaw with two molar teeth and part of a third, K.U. No. 8508. This fragment belongs to the primate genus Pelycodus, and probably to the species P. ralstoni. The specimen was found on the south fork of Elk Creek, Big Horn County, Wyoming, in the lower part of the Willwood formation of early Eocene age.

A Remarkable New Mammal from the Lower Chadron of Nebraska

While we were examining an unusually fossiliferous exposure in the lower member of the White River beds near Whitney, Dawes County, Nebraska, my wife, Mrs. Margaret C. Cook, discovered tiny, scattered fragments of a lower jaw on the surface of the gray-green member of the 'Chadron formation. While screening the dry surface, using binocular glasses and working into the matrix, she found an articulated skull and cervical vertebrae under where the jaws had weathered out. Near the skull were several disarticulated vertebrae and ribs. These remains were removed in one block. Preparation has been difficult, both because of the nature and condition of the fossils and matrix, and because slippage in seams of the clay-silt matrix has caused many fractures and dislocations. Though the skull is virtually complete, the facial region from the orbits forward has been compressed laterally and twisted to one side. The maxillae and teeth are intact, but much remains to be done before the characters of the skull can be fully determined. The vertebrae also are to be prepared. They appear to be very large and heavy in proportion to the skull. Meanwhile, many of the tiny fragments of the lower jaws and teeth have been fitted together, revealing dentition that is complete except for the lower incisors. The specimen indicates a mammal that is surprisingly primitive for its horizon in the Tertiary, with characters reminiscent of Paleocene and early Eocene mammals. Several of these characters are either homologous with or analogous to those of early creodonts, insectivores and artiodactyls. For the presenit I am referring the creature to the creodonts, though it does not seem to be closely related to any creodont of later than early Eocene age with which I have compared it. A partial summary of these comparisons is presented in the following description.

Skull of Proconsul from Rusinga Island

THE second season‘s work of the British-Kenya Miocene Expedition in the Kavirondo region of Lake Victoria has culminated in one of the most important discoveries yet made there. Dr. L. S. B. Leakey, the field director of the Expedition, has announced the finding on Rusinga Island on October 2 of the greater part of a skull of one of the species of Miocene apes belonging to the genus Proconsul, probably Pr. africanus (Hopwood). Up to now, fossil remains of Miocene and Pliocene apes in Africa and other parts of the world have been practically confined to teeth and fragments of jaws, and this new discovery for the first time provides information regarding the whole of the facial skeleton and much of the brain case. As will be seen from the accompanying photograph, the jaws and facial skeleton are remarkably complete, though they are somewhat displaced by distortion on the left side. The forehead region is particularly interesting, for it shows a complete absence of the supra-orbital torus which is so characteristic of the modern African anthropoid apes. Another interesting feature is the unusual thinness of the cranial wall. The specimen is extremely fragile, and evidently must have required consummate skill for its successful removal from the deposits in which it was found. Mrs. Leakey was actually the first to see some small fragments of the skull, where they had been washed out on the slope of one of the gullies which were being explored. She directed the attention of her husband who, cutting back into the beds, brought to light this most important, and indeed unique, fossil. Mrs. Leakey is bringing the skull by air to Great Britain, where she expects to arrive on October 31, and in the first instance it will be deposited at the Department of Human Anatomy at Oxford, where it will be studied in detail, in connexion with more than a hundred other specimens of Miocene fossil apes which the British-Kenya Miocene Expedition has collected over the last two years. It is particularly gratifying to note that this Expedition, which was mainly financed in its first year (1947) with the aid of a grant from the Royal Society, has proved such an outstanding success. Apart from the fine collection of fossil Primate material, many hundred specimens of other Early Miocene vertebrates have also been accumulated.

Hesperomeryx, a New Artiodactyl from the Sespe Eocene, California

Among the several artiodactyls collected in the Upper Sespe Eocene, the new subgenus here described, is clearly the most abundant type. In the fauna recorded at Locality 180 this form exceeds in number all other species; its representation, as a matter of fact, is greater than that of all other individuals combined. No less than 100 individuals are known on the basis of teeth, fragmentary jaws and scattered skeletal elements. While some variation is to be noted, a surprising constancy in structural features characterizes the collection as a whole. For this reason all specimens belonging to this type are referred to as single species.

Human Remains from Kanam and Kanjera, Kenya Colony

THANKS to facilities afforded by the Royal Society and to the courtesy of Dr. L. S. B. Leakey, I have recently had an opportunity of spending about six weeks with the East African Archaeological Expedition in the Kendu district of Kenya. The chief object of my visit was to study the geology of the deposits from which the Kanam mandible and the Kanjera No. 3 skull fragments were obtained, for Dr. Leakey had come to the important conclusion that these remains of Homo sapiens type occurred in situ in beds of Lower Pleistocene and Middle Pleistocene age, respectively. Unfortunately, it has not proved possible to find the exact site of either discovery, since the earlier expedition (of 1931–32) neither marked the localities on the ground nor recorded the sites on a map. Moreover, the photograph of the site where the mandible was found, exhibited with the jaw fragment at the Royal College of Surgeons, was, through some error, that of a different locality ; and the deposits (said to be clays) are in fact of entirely different rocks (volcanic agglomerate). Further confusion seems to have arisen over the photograph labelled as the horizon from which the Kanjera No. 3 skull fragments were obtained, this proving to be a cliff of volcanic ash situated some distance away. As the 1931–32 expedition spent three months in the area after the discovery of the mandible at Kanam (its activities being described in Dr. Leakey's field-reports circulated at the tune), it is regrettable that the records are not more precise.

An Eocene Primate from California

Recognition of a primate in the mammalian assemblage now being recorded from one of the faunal stages of the Sespe, north of the Simi Valley, California, comes with startling abruptness, yet is not wholly unexpected. No fewer than five fragments of jaws, probably representing as many individuals, have been found recently. The sudden appearance of this material in the collections of fossil mammalian remains obtained at Locality 150 Calif. Inst. Tech. Vert. Pale. commands attention when it is stated that excavations at this site have been in progress more or less continuously during the past two years.

The Peking Man

AT a meeting of the Geological Society of China on June 28, Prof. Davidson Black made the first public reference to the discovery of parts of Sinanthropus other than the skull—an ungual phalanx of the foot found more than two years ago, a clavicle and a semi-lunar bone (wrist) found last season. The announcement of these discoveries was withheld until the close of the present seasons excavations at Chou Kou Tien in the hope that other parts of the limbs might be recovered. This hope has not been realised. Hence an account is now given of the small fragment that seems to demonstrate that the Peking man's hand “differed in no essential respect from our own”, of the peculiar obliquely-directed toe-bone, “which makes it probable that the feet differed much more widely from ours than the hands”, and of the robust clavicle. On July 5 Prof. Davidson Black left Peking for England to deliver the Croonian Lecture to the Royal Society next December; he is visiting fossil beds in India and Egypt on the way. Before leaving China, he made casts of the five jaw fragments, the complete skull of the youth found in 1929, and of the endocranial cast of Sinanthropus, for transmission to London for reproduction, and completed his report on the endocranial cast and its significance. Its capacity is not more than 900 c.c. It reveals the asymmetry claimed to be distinctive of right-handedness. The cast displays many primitive features of exceptional interest, which shed important light on the distinctive characters of the earliest human brain.

Proceedings of the Special Meeting of the Geological Society Held at the Library of the National Geological Survey, Peiping on Nov. 3rd 1931, at 3 P. M.

AbstractDuring the season of 1928 an immature Sinanthropus jaw specimen (from Locus B) and an adult jaw fragment (from Locus A) were recovered from the Main Deposit at Chou Kou Tien. These specimens have already been briefly described before this Society but preparation work has now advanced on the Locus B specimen to a point where the continuity of the whole of the right side of the jaw is apparent. (lantern slide)

Research Items

KENT'S CAVEBN.—In the Proceedings of the Torquay Natural History Society for 1926-27, Sir Arthur Keith describes the fragment of a human jaw which was found at a depth of 10J feet in the cave earth in the vestibule of Kent's Cavern. It represents part of the right half of the upper jaw, and includes the alveolar process from the middle of the socket of the canine to almost the hinder or distal margin of the socket of the second molar. Three teeth are in place—the right canine, the second right premolar, and the first right molar. The sockets for the first premolar and the second molar are empty, their teeth having fallen from the sockets after death. A small area of the lower wall of the sinus maxillaris and the basal part of the zygomatic ridge of the upper jaw are preserved, as well as a small part of the palatal process on the inner margin of the alveolar process. There is no sign of disease, but the crowns are worn flat and smooth so that a border of enamel encloses the exposed dentine. The state of the canine indicates an edgeto-edge bite. The condition of the fractured surface of the bone suggests that it was broken away before the animal matter had entirely disappeared. The bone is coloured a pinkish red, the colour of all fossil specimens from the cave earth, and there can be no doubt that it is as old as the date of the deposition of the cave earth. The teeth and jaws may very well have belonged to the same people whose remains have previously been found in the cavern, that is, the palate found in the stalagmite by Mr. Pengelly and the fragment described in the last report. It belongs to the type of modern man which includes the late palaeolithic peoples of Europe.

Societies and Academies

Societies and Academies

I. On the relationship of the Eocene lemur Notharctus to the Adapidae and to other primates: II. On the classification and phylogeny of the Lemuroidea

I. On the Relationship of the Eocene Lemur Notharctus to the AdapidAE and to other Primates 2 RESULTS OBTAINED BY OTHER INVESTIGATORS The genus Notharctus was founded by Leidy in 1870 upon a small fossil jaw which had been found in the Eocene formation near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Leidy was not able to refer the animal to any existing order of mammals. He noted its resemblances to carnivorous mammals on the one hand and to certain supposed Eocene pachyderms on the other. Marsh, who described a similar jaw fragment the next year, 1871, also noted its resemblances to the supposed suilline pachyderm Hyopsodus. In October, 1872, however, Marsh described some better specimens, which included parts of the limb bones. He remarked that the principal parts of the skeleton of these animals were formed much as in some of the Lemurs, especially the limb bones, and he referred the animals to . . .