A Monograph of the British Pleistocene Mammalia (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 Excerpt: ...internally than externally, and trans versed posteriorly by a broad and, in part, deep groove, passing obliquely from the base downwards and inwards, the tooth being held in the natural position, which is representative of that on II and 2, and marks off a corresponding small tubercle or cusp (/) on the inner posterior or internal side. The cingulum is slightly or moderately developed. We are able to figure a perfectly unworn tooth from Bleadon Cave, which had belonged to so young an animal that the fang has never been ossified. This tooth is easily differentiated from the corresponding tooth of the hyaena, by the more slender and slightly more curved form, by the smaller breadth and greater depth of the posterior groove, by the consequently greater size of the cusp (f), as also in young specimens, by the perfect smoothness of the enamel. The canines of the glutton with which this tooth is sometimes compared, are essentially different in form, and are also far more slender, and their enamel surface is much rougher than even in the teeth of hyaena. Canines (Pl. XI, figs. 1, 5, 6, 7).--The canines of the larger specimens of Felis spelaa were truly formidable weapons, and exceeded in size those of any adult lion or tiger we know of. The largest we have seen is from Crayford, in the Thames Valley. It measures 680 inches in length, the point being somewhat abraded. This somewhat exceeds the large specimen figured by De Blainville.1 It unfortunately did not come into our hands until our plate of the dentition was finished, in which we had figured as the largest British specimen one about the size of the French tooth, from Wookey Hyaena-den. This has the point and the inner side a little abraded by the wear of the lower canine. We figure a second specimen (Pl. XI, ..