The Deseado Formation of PatagoniaLoomis, Frederic Brewster
Science
The Deseado Formation of Patagonia
Loomis, Frederic Brewster
Paleontology -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile)
but in my specimen which is a comparatively young individual, I find a
small alveolus for the upper canine, which modifies the formula to
3 1 4 3
-------.
2 1 4 3
In the first upper dentition found, incisors 2 and 3 were represented
by alveoli only, but our specimen shows these teeth, and we find
that they have enamel only on the outer face, making this genus more
specialized in this respect than any of the other typotheres. The
upper molars have the deep inner inflexion bifurcated, which makes
the tooth three-lobed, a character which grows more marked the older
the individual is. The premaxillae are high and bring the snout well
forward. The nasals are lacking, but the bounding bones show them to
have been unusually broad and flat. The maxilla extends up to the
nasals, and bounds the lower border of the orbit, and projects backward
in a heavy overhanging zygomatic process. The lachrymal bone is large
externally, with a large but low lachrymal tubercle just below which
is found the lachrymal duct, opening just in front of the margin of
the orbit. The frontals are short and wide, extending outward over the
orbit in a strong postorbital process which bounds half of the rear of
the orbit. The parietals, meeting medianly, rise in a strong sagittal
crest. Unfortunately the back part of the cranium is lacking. From
another specimen, which contained the brain cast, it is clear that the
bulla was much inflated and hollow, and that there was an inflation in
the upper part of the squamosum, as in _Prosotherium_, etc.
[Illustration: Fig. 46. E. spegazzinianus—½ natural size.]
One specimen with the facial portion badly weathered, but retaining
enough to identify the species as _E. spegazzinianus_, preserved the
brain case, so that it could be prepared out.
The most striking feature of this brain is its relatively large
size, _E. spegazzinianus_ being an animal about the size of a sheep,
and the brain is as large as that of the sheep, which is in strong
contrast to what would be expected of an Oligocene form. Compared
with the herbivorous Oligocene oreodont, _Eucrotaphus_, an animal of
approximately the same size, this brain is half again as large in every
way. A second striking feature is the short compact character of the
brain, the forebrain extending only a short distance in front of the
exit of the optic nerves, and extending backward so as to cover most
all of the cerebellum. Thirdly, the cerebral surface is considerably
convoluted, comparable to the convolution of a pig’s brain. These
features would indicate a specialization of the nervous system,
approximating that of the skeleton, and would indicate that this group
had advanced in intelligence and activity beyond the grade of nervous
development which is apparent in the contemporaries of the _Typotheria_.
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