Notes

Abstract

MISS DOROTHEA BATE, already well known for her researches in the caverns of Cyprus and elsewhere, has had the good fortune to make a very remarkable and interesting discovery in a cave in Majorca. On her return home Miss Bate remarked that the cave contained only a few bones of goats, but on further examination these despised relics proved to indicate an entirely new type of an extraordinary nature—in other words, neither more nor less than a “rodent-goat.” For the skull, which with certain other remains is described by its discoverer in the September number of the Geological Magazine, under the name of Myotragus balearicus, is characterised by its extreme shortness, and the presence in the front of the lower jaw of a single pair of incisor teeth, in place of the four pairs of incisors plus canines characteristic of ruminants generally. In all respects these incisors are rodent-like, growing from persistent pulps, having the enamel restricted to the front and outer surface, and presenting a terminal worn surface. To explain this worn facet almost seems to require the presence of a pair of upper incisors (the front of the skull is unfortunately imperfect), and if such were really the case a revision of the diagnosis of the Pecora would be rendered necessary. The cannon-bones in both limbs are remarkably short and wide, exceeding, apparently, in these respects those of the takin and white goat.