Bachitherium indet.

MATERIAL AND MEASUREMENTS (in mm). — Right P4, SPV 690: 6.5 × 8.2; a trigonid of a left lower molar, SVP 691.

DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISONS

Ŋe P4 is smaller than that of Lophiomeryx . Ŋe protocone is crescentiform; the external cusp is massive and provided with a small pillar, while the wing of the parastyle projects labially. Ŋis character set evokes those of the P4 of Bachitherium (Geraads et al. 1987: 53, fig. 6).

Ŋe lower molar trigonid differs from that of the Lophiomeryx molar in having a well-developed preprotocristid, approximately symmetrical with the postmetacristid; the metaconid is labio-lingually compressed (Geraads et al. 1987: 59, figs 26, 31).

Although the size of these specimens is similar to that of Bachitherium medium Filhol, 1882 (excluding B. insigne Filhol, 1882), the material of Saint-Privat-des-Vieux is not diagnostic at a species level because several lineages of the genus coexist in the middle Oligocene, especially in MP 25 (Sudre 1995: 251, fig. 41). Ŋe last known species of Bachitherium, B. lavocati Sudre, 1986, from Pech- Desse (MP 28a; Blondel 1997) is a smaller form than that of Saint-Privat-des-Vieux (Sudre 1986).