ENGINEER DEPARTMENT, U. S ARMY. GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE 100TH MERIDIAN. FIRST LIEUT. GEO. M. WHEELER, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, IN CHARGE. SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF VERTEBRATA OF THE EOCENE OF NEW MEXICO. COLLECTED IN 1874. E. D. COPE, A. M., PALEONTOLOGIST. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. April 17, 1875. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, SIR: Lieut. George M. Wheeler has sent to this Office report of Prof. E. D. Cope on the vertebrata from the Eocene of New Mexico, obtained by the geographical survey under his charge, during the field-season of 1874. I have respectfully to recommend that it be printed at the Government Printing-Office, and that fifteen hundred copies be furnished on requisition from this Office. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. W. W. BELKNAP, A. A. HUMPHREYS, Brigadier-General and Chief of Engineers. Secretary of War. Approved: By order of the Secretary of War. H. T. CROSBY, Chief Clerk. WAR DEPARTMENT, March 9, 1875. UNITED STATES ENGINEER-OFFICE, GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN, Washington, D. C., March 5, 1875. GENERAL: I have the honor to forward herewith a systematic catalogue of vertebrata from the Eocene of New Mexico, with description of new species, prepared by Prof. E. D. Cope, A. M., paleontologist to the expedition of 1874, and to request that, in order to establish priority of discovery, it be printed and bound at the Government Printing Office, and that fifteen hundred copies be furnished for the use of this Office. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Brig. Gen. A. A. HUMPHREYS, GEORGE M. WHEELER, Lieutenant of Engineers, in Charge. Chief of Engineers, U. S. A. SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF THE VERTEBRATA OF THE EOCENE OF NEW MEXICO. BY E. D. COPE, A. M. PHILADELPHIA, February 19, 1875. SIR: The present essay completes the determination of the species of vertebrata obtained by the geographical survey under your charge in the Eocene formation of New Mexico during the field-season of 1874. The descriptions which have already appeared in your report to the Chief of Engineers, as published in the annual report of the latter for 1874, are not now repeated. The total number of mammalia is forty-seven species, of which the present report introduces twenty-four for the first time. The genera of this order which can be compared, differ as follows in points of dentition : A. Carnassials without opposite inner tubercle. Carnassials with two cusps and without heel. Carnassials with three or more tubercles in one series. Hyanodon. Mesonyx. Ambloctonus. AA. Carnassials with inner cone or tubercle opposite the outer; no tubercular molar: Two tubercular carnassials. Three tubercular carnassials. AAA. Tubercular teeth behind tubercular carnassials. Oxyæna. Prototomus One tubercular, and one tubercular carnassial; no incisors. Didy mictis. Two tuberculars. Cynodon. The series of dental types which precede the complex structures of teeth, presented by the most specialized divisions of the hoofed mammalia, have been pointed out by the writer in an essay on the Origin and Homologies of the Types of Dentition of the Mammalia Educabilia*. From this discussion the analysis of the most specialized sectorial tooth of the carnivora, as seen in the Felidae, was omitted. As light has been thrown on the subject by later researches, a note of the *Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 1874. |