Richard C. Fox

“ If the fissures were the dens of predators, at least some and probably many of the bones would show tooth marks. A predator feeding on other animals would be expected to leave some evidence of its habits on the bones of its prey. No such evidence is known to me, either from my own examination of several thousand bones or from the reports in the literature by others who have studied aspects of the early Permian fauna of Fort Sill. ”

“ At the posteroventral corner of the naris a foramen opens onto the lateral surface of the maxilla. The opening is the entrance to a canal that runs posteriorly [Pg 301] above the tooth-row throughout the length of each specimen. Beneath the naris the maxilla extends as a broad tapering shelf, the ventral surface of which articulates with the premaxilla. The narial rim is wide, but wider ventrally than dorsally. The plane of the narial rim is oblique to the lateral surface of the maxilla. ”

“ If the predators were larger than Captorhinus and occupied the fissures for a long enough time to account for the accumulation of the tremendous numbers of individuals that are represented, a considerable amount of the skeletal material of the larger animals would be present in the fissure deposits. ”