class="c2">(Coues)

The San Josecito collection contains 22 rami of a species of Cryptotis. Many are nearly complete although none possesses the incisor. In addition there is a rostrum that on the right side bears the last two unicuspids, P4, M1, and M2. I have compared these fossils with specimens of the following species of Cryptotis: C. mexicana, C. magna, C. nelsoni, C. thomasi, C. alticola, C. parva, C. orophila, C. pergracilis, C. guerrerensis, C. obscura, C. mera, C. soricina, C. fossor, C. goodwini, C. griseoventris, C. meridensis, C. mayensis, and C. micrura. The four species first mentioned and the fossils seem to fall into one group. The remaining species fall into another group characterized by a smaller occlusal area of the talonid on all three molar teeth with respect to the trigonid, and especially by the smaller and weaker talonid of m3 which possesses only one bladelike cusp, the hypoconid. In the first four species the talonids are larger than in the other species when compared to the trigonids, and the talonid of m3 possesses a well developed hypoconid and entoconid with a distinct basin between them. The rami of San Josecito specimens closely resemble those of C. mexicana in both size and qualitative characters. The rostrum mentioned above differs from those of C. mexicana in that the unicuspids are larger, especially the posteriormost one. Cryptotis thomasi and C. magna are eliminated from consideration here on geographical grounds. Little difference may be seen between the rami of C. mexicana mexicana from Veracruz and C. nelsoni. The fossils are referred to the former species since it has a rather wide distribution in México in contrast to C. nelsoni which is restricted to Volcán de Tuxtla, Veracruz. The northernmost Recent occurrence of C. mexicana known to me is from Las Vigas, Veracruz. As far as I know the species has not previously been recorded from the Pleistocene.

Stirton (1930:225), in summarizing the group characters of Recent Soricidae, listed the bicuspid talonid of m3 as one of the characters of the "Blarina group," which includes Neomys, Soriculus, Notiosorex, Chimarrogale, Cryptotis, and Blarina. That this character does not obtain universally within the group is demonstrated by the unicuspid structure of the talonid of m3 of the majority of the species of Mexican Cryptotis.

LITERATURE CITED

Cushing, J. E., Jr.
1945. Quaternary rodents and lagomorphs of San Josecito Cave, Nuevo León, México. Jour. Mamm., 26:2, 182-186.

Hibbard, C. W.
1953. The insectivores of the Rexroad fauna, upper Pliocene of Kansas. Jour. Paleontology, 27:1, 21-32.

Maldonado-Koerdell, M.
1948. Los vertebrados fosiles del Cuaternario en Mexico. Revista de la Soc. Mexicana de Hist. Nat., tomo 9, nos. 1-2.

Stirton, R. A.
1930. A new genus of Soricidae from the Barstow Miocene of California. Univ. California Publ., Bull. Dept.