It is interesting to find this moose in the region about Charleston. We must suppose that it lived there during one of the glacial stages, probably when the walrus occupied that part of the coast.
In the Pinckney collection is a tooth of a capybara that deserves attention. A figure of it is here presented (fig. 18), a side view. Exactly where the tooth was found is not known, but it was somewhere in the vicinity of Charleston. The tooth is the upper left hindermost molar. In the figure the front end is directed toward the left hand. There are present 17 plates. None of the plates either in front or behind are missing. The free edges of the plates are not turned backward. The length of the tooth is 62 mm., the width is 17.5, the height of the plates on the inner face 37 mm., but probably the less calcified bases of the plates have been destroyed.
Fig. 18.—Side view of upper last molar of Hydrochœrus pinckneyi from Charleston, S. C. ×1. Type.
On the grinding-surface the plates run obliquely from the inside outward and backward. As seen on the inner face, the plates, as they pass to the grinding-surface, lean backward. The corresponding tooth of a capybara from Surinam has a length of 37 mm. The length of its skull from foramen magnum to the front of the snout is 215 mm. In case the skull of the fossil was long in proportion to the length of the tooth, the length as given above would be 360 mm., about 15 inches.
To this fine large species I give the name Hydrochœrus pinckneyi, in honor of Mr. Charles C. Pinckney, the owner of a collection of fossils from the region about Charleston and the proprietor of the estate of Runnymede, near Lambs, South Carolina.
In the same collection is a part of the lower jaw, right side, of a rather large wolf. In this jaw there remain the complete fourth premolar, the roots of the third premolar, and one root of the second (fig. 19).
The following measurements are taken from the fragment mentioned; from the corresponding part of a jaw of Ænocyon dirus, No. 8307, from La Brea, California; from the gray wolf, Canis occidentalis, from Fort Simpson, British America, No. 9001, U. S. National Museum; and from the type of C. floridanus, in the U. S. National Museum.
| Measurements of jaws and teeth of wolves, in millimeters. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parts measured. | Charleston jaw. | La Brea jaw. | C. occidentalis jaw. | C. floridanus type. |
| Height of jaw in front of pm4 | 28 | 32 | 33 | 21.5 |
| Thickness at front of pm4 | 14 | 16 | 14.2 | 10.2 |
| Length of pm4 | 18.5 | 20.2 | 18.5 | 14.5 |
| Thickness of hinder lobe of pm4 | 9.5 | 11 | 9.5 | 7 |
| Thickness of front lobe | 8.5 | 9.8 | 8.5 | 6.4 |
The measurements show that the fossil is much too large to belong to the wolf now inhabiting Florida. It appears also to be too small to belong to the wolf Ænocyon dirus, and A. ayersi was but little if any smaller. The lower teeth of the latter species are not known. The accordance in measurements with those of C. occidentalis makes it probable that the fossil jaw found at Charleston belonged to a wolf not greatly different. With the materials at hand it is impossible to refer the jaw specifically.