Page:Mammalia (Beddard).djvu/574

 A family, Megaladapididae, has been quite lately founded by Dr. Forsyth Major to include the remains of a gigantic extinct Lemur from Madagascar, which when alive, so far as we can judge from the skull, must have been three or four times the size of the Common Cat. The name Megaladapis madagascariensis was given to the fossil on account of certain resemblances to the also extinct Adapis. It differs from other Lemurs in a number of characters which jointly warrant its inclusion in a distinct family. The small size of the orbits suggest a diurnal life; the deep mandibles, which, unlike what is found in other Lemurs, are completely blended at the suture, point to the existence of a howling apparatus, as in Mycetes. The low brain-case is a character which is found in so many extinct Mammalia belonging to many different orders that it weighs neither one way nor the other in considering the systematic position of the animal. The shape of the molars, which are three in each half of each jaw as in other Lemurs, is, according to the discoverer, like that of the genus Lepilemur. The incisors and the canines are not known. Of a still larger form, M. insignis, the molar teeth are known.

The Apes differ from the Lemurs in that the teats are always restricted to the thoracic region; the orbit, though surrounded by bone as in the Lemurs (and in Tupaia, a very Lemur-like Insectivore), does not open freely behind into the temporal fossa as in Lemurs (except Tarsius). The lachrymal opening is inside the orbit instead of outside; the cerebral hemispheres are more highly developed, and conceal, or nearly conceal, the cerebellum; the upper incisors are in close contact; a few other points are mentioned under the description of the characters of the Lemurs. There are altogether about 212 species of Monkeys and Apes. They are tropical and subtropical in range, and, with but few exceptions, are impatient of cold.

The Monkeys are primarily divisible into two great divisions, which have been termed, on account of the characters of the nose,