VI. MAP, Showing the distributions of the Genera Papio, Theropithecus, Cynopithecus, Cercocebus and Cercopithecus (Blue), and Macacus (Red).
F6. PATAGONIAN SUB-REGION.
| I. Lemuroidea. | II. Anthropoidea. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living. | Extinct. | Living. | Extinct. | ||||
| Peculiar | genera | — | — | Peculiar | genera | — | 4 |
| ,, | species | — | — | ,, | species | — | 4 |
The following fossil species have been recorded from this Sub-region:—
1. Homunculus patagonicus. 2. Anthropops perfectus. 3. Homocentrus argentinus. 4. Eudiastus lingulatus.
APPENDIX.
During the passage of this volume through the press, a good deal of additional material has come into the author's hands, while the results of important recent explorations have also been published. The following appendix has, therefore, been added to include the latest additions to our knowledge of the Anthropoids dealt with in its pages.
On page [82], the Talapoin (Cercopithecus talapoin) has been relegated to a group (and, indeed, it had been assigned by Geoffrey to a distinct genus—Miopithecus), in which it is the sole example on account of the supposed peculiarity of possessing but three tubercles on the posterior lower molar. A specimen which the author has recently examined shows that this character is not invariable, and the species should, therefore, in his opinion, be transferred to among the Green Guenons—Group II., Cercopitheci Chloronoti—and be placed next after the Tantalus Guenon on page [62].
The extremely important collections made by his friend Dr. Forsyth Major during his adventurous explorations in Madagascar in the years 1894 to 1896—from which he has but just returned—have made it necessary to add on page [212] a new family to the Anthropoidea. In the marshes of Sirabé, in Central Madagascar, he discovered the fossil remains of a species of true monkey—a group hitherto unknown to occur in that island—which must have been a contemporary of the Æpyornis, the well-known giant moa-like ratite bird which once lived there, but is now extinct. The fragments so far recovered show that in this creature the orbits were directed straight forward and were separated from the temporal fossæ by a bony wall. The lachrymal foramen was situated inside the margin of the orbit; the inner upper incisors were in contact in the middle line; the nasals were broad and concave in profile, while the facial contour, viewed from the side, was very high. The pattern of the molars closely agreed with that seen in the Guenons (Cercopithecidæ). "The nasals are broad," continues Dr. Major, "and so is the whole of the interorbital region, its transversal diameter almost equalling that of the orbits, and therefore exceeding that obtained in the genera of Anthropoidea, which show the maximum of external extension of the region (Mycetes, Hylobates, Homo)." This is about the only point in which the fossil approaches some of the Lemuroidea. The formula of its upper teeth is I 2, C 1, P 3, M 3 = 18, or that which has been found heretofore to be characteristic of the New World monkeys. "The three molars are each composed of four tubercles, the outer and inner pairs being placed opposite one another and connected together by transverse ridges. This is the pattern of the Cercopithecidæ; but, unlike the Old World monkeys, the molars decrease in size from before backwards" (Major). In the lower jaw the formula appears to have been I 2, C 1, P 2, M 3 = 16. Hence "whilst the dental formula of the upper teeth agrees with that of the Cebidæ, it is quite peculiar in the lower jaw, and whilst the pattern of the molars is that of the Cercopithecidæ, the premolars differ alike from Old and New World monkeys.... These combined characters amply justify the establishment of a separate family of Anthropoidea for the Malagasy fossil, intermediate in some respects between the South American Cebidæ and the Old World Cercopithecidæ, besides presenting characters of its own." Dr. Forsyth Major has, therefore, proposed the new genus Nesopithecus for the reception of this most remarkable monkey, under the new family of Nesopithecidæ. The discovery of Nesopithecus roberti, as he has designated the species, suggests, as Dr. Major has set forth in the Geological Magazine for October, 1896, page 436, "the following general conclusions:—
"(1) We may look forward in Continental Africa likewise for the discovery of Tertiary monkeys, intermediate between Cebidæ and Cercopithecidæ.