Bulletin of Museum of Comparative Zoology 61

BULLETIN ^ i^ 3i j-o* Iff ^ MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY HARVARD COLLEGE, IX VOL CA:\1BRIDGE LXL '^^^rr CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U 1917-1918 S A Thk Cosmos E Press: W Wheelek, Cambridge, Mass., I U S A CONTENTS No — New fossil inanimals from Cuba January, 1917 plate) — — New Chamberlin No No (.5 \' K.vli'H April, 1917 plates) 23 By Alvin Se.\le May, 1917 — New species of ajMxlal — New Hymenoptera By Nath.\n Banks May, fishes 77 fossorial " ^ — The introduction of P.H.Pope (2 plates) 9.-) By West Indian Anura into Bernnida June, 1917 117 — Notes on some Falkland Island No Brooks (3 plates) June, 1917 No By Aviculariidae 1917 No Whkklkk Morto.n hi the family of spiders (1 By \\illl\m The ants of Alaska No March, 1917 No By G M Allen birds Bj- W 8i'KA(iUE 133 — Explorations of the coast water between Cape Cod and Hali- and 1915, by the U S Fisheries Schooner Grampus Oceanography and plankton By Henry B Bigelow (2 plates) fax in 1914 July, 1917 161 — New and brachiopods from the Rocky Mountains By Thomas H Clark (2 plates) August, 1917 No No 10 — A new L Peters — Reports 12 T Brues (1 plate) September, 1917 scientific 381 By 389 October, 1917 on the 3.59 Peripatus from the mountains of northern — Birds from the northern coast of the Dominican republic 11 James No sj^ecies of By Charles Peru No blastoids results of the expedition to the Tropical Pacific in charge of Alexander Agassiz, on the U S Fish Commission Steamer "Albatross" from August, 1899, to March, 1900, Commander Jefferson F Moser, U S N., commanding XVIII Reports on the scientific results of the expedition to the Eastern Tropical Pacific in charge of Alexander Agassiz, bj' the U S Fish Commission Steamer "Albatross," from October, 1904 to March, 1905, XXX Lieut Commander L M Garrett, U S N., commanding October, 1917 Ophiuroidea By Hubert Lyman Clark (5 plates) No 13 — Jamaican ants collected by Prof C T Brues Morton Wheeler (2 plates) 427 By William December, 1917 455 — No 14 Vertebrata from Madagascar Introduction By George Aves Amphibia; Rcptilia By Thomas Barbour R Agassiz By Outram Bangs Mammalia By Glover M Allen (2 plates) February, 1918 No 15 — The (5 plates) Harvard deep-sea thermograph March, 1918 473 By Harry Clark 517 Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology AT HARVARD COLLEGE Vol LXI NEW FOSSIL No MAMMALS FROM CUBA By G M Allen With One Piate CAMBRIDGE, iMASS., U S A.: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM Januaky, 1917 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/bulletinofmuseu61harv No — New Fossil Mammals from Cuba By Glover M Allen The recent discoveries of fossil mammals Domingo, and Cuba (Anthony, 1916, 191Ga; in Porto Rico, San Miller, 1916a) indicate the former existence in these islands of a very interesting and remarkable assemblage of indigenous species many become extinct within only very recent of times which have probably The remains hitherto discovered represent five extinct genera of hystricine rodents (not including AmblvThiza of Anguilla and St Martin's), at least two genera ground sloths, and a new family of insectivores (Xesophontidae) Further systematic search will doubtless disclose additional remains on other of the Antillean islands, the study of which must throw much light on the distributional problems of the West Indies The Museum of Comparative Zo5logy has received from Professor Carlos de la Torre, the distinguished Cuban naturalist, a fragment of -bone-breccia obtained in the Province of IMatanzas, Cuba, from a of — cavity as distinguished from eueva,' a large cave than one fourth of a cubic foot in volume, and apparently represents a complete section of the floor deposit, some four inches thick The bottom portion consists of red cave earth, and a few limestone pebbles with much admixture of minute bone-fragments The more superficial portion is almost entirely composed of small mammalian bones, indistinctly stratified, for the greater part crushed to microscopic fragments The whole mass is mixed with particles of cave earth, and solidly cemented together by the deposition of lime from infiltrating water As to the age of the deposit, there is of course no indication beyond the fact of its having been laid down in a cavern of no great antiquity Presumably it is of Pleistocene or even more ' caverna' This block cleft or ' is less recent age In spite of the very fragmentary nature of the bones, and the with which they were cemented together, a number of nearly complete jaws and palates were extricated Lower jaws, as usual in such deposits, are best preserved and most frequent; portions of long solidity bones, though usually too broken to be of value A and teeth recovered, reveals three very interThe first is an insectivore of a type probably common, were careful study of the jaws esting new species : bulletin: museum of comparative zoology Xesophontes of Porto Rico It i.s, however, a much smaller animal, and is likely to prove a representative of still another genus, though on account of the fragmentary nature of the only jaw discovered, this is still uncertain The two other species are hystricine rodents, the one a small mouse-like species, probably related to Brotomys and Boromys (Miller, 191(Ja), the other a member related to the newly described group of Capromys, for which Chapman (19011 proposed the subgenus Geocapromys The last species forms by far of the short-tailed the greater part of the bone fragments The subgenus Geocapromys has hitherto been living forms only — hrownii, respectively to Jamaica, Little known from three and ingrahami, confined Swan Island, and Plana Keys (Bahathuracatu.s-, mas) The discovery of a recently extinct species in Cuba is therefore important, as bridging in part the hiatus between the last two species, and definitely adding Cuba to the known range of the group A study Capromys as at present imderstood, reveals an excellent tooth character by which the short-tailed members of the group may be distinguished, namely, the presence of an additional antero-internal reentrant in the enamel pattern of the first lower molariform tooth (pmi) This, in addition to other cranial and external characters, in part already pointed out ])y Chapman, is, of all the living species of I think, sufficient to raise Geocapromys to generic rank, as a related but more specialized group In working out the relations of the Cuban Geocapromys, it became Chapman's Capromys columhianns of two subfossil fragments of the necessary to consider more carefully This was described on the basis maxillary with the palate, found in a cave near Trinidad, Cuba, buried a few inches from the surface Associated with these were a molar (probably the last one in an upper series) and portions of bones which were doubtfully referred to the same species The molar is, without much from a species of Capromys, but Chapman's excellent and description leave no doubt that his C Columbian us is an animal very different from other known forms of that genus Indeed, a,s I have previously suggested (1911, p 212) it is not even congeneric Through the kindness of Mr H E Anthony of the American Museum of Natural History, I have lately had the privilege of examining the type specimens and find my previous conclusions fully substantiated In order to bring out more clearly the peculiarities of this animal, and to obviate any misconceptions of distribution that may arise through (juestion, figure considering pose for it a it a fourth new Cuban generic term sjjccies of Capromys I therefore pro- ALLEN: NEW FOSSIL MAMMALS FROM CUBA Synodontomys, gen no v — Capromys colwnhianus Characters — A Capromys-like Chapman Type Species fig 3) (1892, p 314, animal of the size of C with a V-shaped palate that narrows anteriorly until the anteriormost molariform teeth (pni*) nearly touch the median axis, and are only separated from each other by the thin bony walls of their alveoli Pattern of upper cheek teeth apparently similar to that of Capromys, with two outer reentrant folds of enamel and one median inner fold; but apparently these folds slope rather strongly forward (as indicated by the forward direction of the small vertical ridges of the alveoli) instead of being as in Capromys nearly transverse In outline the molariform teeth are very nearly square instead of elongate or rectangular as in Capromys, and are subequal in size In the close approximation of the maxillary tooth rows, this genus recalls Myocastor, but differs in the tooth structure Generic pilorides, The three species found breccia from among Matanzas are the the fragments in the block of bone- following INSECTIVORA ?Nesophontes micrus, Plate, Type —A fig sp nov 14 posterior half of the right ramus, containing a part of and the roots of m-s, M C Z 9G00 From a cavern in the Hato-Nuevo, Province of Matanzas, Cuba Carlos de la ptUi, nil, mi, Sierra of Torre Description.— The fragment indicates an animal considerably smaller than Nesophontes edithae of Porto Rico, but the jaw was evi- dently similar in the general form of the angulare and the ascending process The ramus, however, seems proportionally more slender, without the depth of curve beneath the molars The molars differ from those of the type species of Nesophontes (1) in being less elongate in the axis of the tooth row; (2) in decreasing in size from mi to ma; (3) in lacking a certain 'plumpness' of form that is found in Solenodon as well and (4) in the lack of a space between the posterior border of rui and the ascending process of the mandible ; bulletin: museum of comparative zoology G The fragment contains traces of tvvo roots of a pmz, and a nearly complete piiii which, as in N cdithae, is t^\'o-rooted ^-ith a prominent Both first and second lower molars have a posterior cingiihim cusp cingulum on the anterior half of the outer aspect Their cusps are sharp, the paraconid equalling the hypoconid in vertical height The protoconid is higher than the metaconid, which it nearly hides in side view, though its summit is a very little posterior to that of the metaconid The entoconid and the hypoconid are of equal height, the former very slightly anterior to the latter in side \dew (Plate, There seems to be also a minute hypoconulid The condyle 14) fig jaw is not in condition for thorough comparison Front of pm\ to ascending process of mandible, Measurements 7.5 mm.; front of piUi to back of mi, 5.5; length of m\, 2.3; of vvi, of the — depth of ramus at front of m-i, 2.4 Specimen c:camined The type While agreeing in the general structure of the teeth so Remarks far as this can be determined from the specimen, there are such evident differences of proportion and size as to render it unlikely that this jaw is from a species of Nesophontes Nevertheless the similarity is sufficient to associate it \\'ith that genus until better material may be discovered to prove its relationships are otherwise Certainly the present fragment is insufficient for the founding of still another genus The teeth are of a rather primitive type and clearly indicate a fourth 2.0; — — species of Antillean insectivore RODENTIA Boromys torrei, Plate, Type row fig sp nov 10-13 — A palate with root of right zygomatic arch, pm^ and alveolar m^ and posterior part of alveolar row of left side, a cavern in the Sierra of Hato-Nuevo, Province of Matanzas, Cuba Carlos de la Torre Description Resembles Brotomys voratus of San Domingo and Boromys offclla of Cuba, but differs from both in its much smaller size and the deeper indentation of the posterior emargination of the palate, which reaches forward to the level of the center of m- It is not possible to determine whether there is a supplemental groove at the base of the antorbital foramen, the chief cranial character distin- M of right side, C Z 9601 — From PLATE Clark — Harvard Deep-Sea Thermograph PLATE Fig Fig Fig Fig Another view of main casting shown in Fig View of interior of the front casting System of horizontal plates in the coUimator Print from original negative; silhouette of mercury column shown in white Figures size; 4, 5, and have uniform figure 7, natural size scale: 47 per cent of natural BULL MUS COMP ZOOL Clark Thermograph Puvte PLATE Clark — Harvard Deep-Seft Tliermograph PLATE Figs 8-11 Details of structure Uniform scale: 47 per cent of natural size In Fig the upper center, e (not lettered) the other upper center, /] [Note is opposite BULL MUS.C0MP.20dL Clark Thermograph Plate 'I 11 PLATE CLAnK — Harvard Decp-Sca TlieriiU)j,'raph PLATE Fig 12 The thermometer, brass case for thermometer, cartridge roll of camera Fig 13 Details of the clockwork Uniform scale: 47 per cent of natural size two dry cells, and BULL MUS.C0MP.200L \ Clark Thermograph Plate X G H D rf 12 13 PLATE Clark — Harvard Dccp-Seu Thermograph PLATE Fig 14 Protective steel shell, detail of Uniform scale: its parts, and 30 per cent of natural section of its lower end size BULL MUS COMP.ZOOL Clark Thermograph Plate ^ n ^ t ! M 14 ' ' ... the lack of a space between the posterior border of rui and the ascending process of the mandible ; bulletin: museum of comparative zoology G The fragment contains traces of tvvo roots of a pmz,... BILLETIX: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY — Mea.surt)n