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Show 68 MAMMALIA ABU::N"DANT. pachydermatous, and the tapir type continues. to be ~on• spicuous. One animal of this kind, called the d'l.1wthenum, is suppo~ed to have been not less than eighteen feet lo~g; it had a mole-like fonn of the shoulder blade, confen'1ng the power of digging for food, and a ~ourle of tusk9 turn• ing down from the lower jaw, by wh1ch 1t could have ~t· tached itself, like the walrus, to a shore or bank, ~h1le its body floated in the water. Dr. Buckland cons1dcrs this and some similar miocene animals, as adapted for a semi-aquatic life, in a reg~on '~here lak~s aboun~ed. Be .. sides the tapirs, we have 1n this era an1mals allied to the glutton, the bear, the dog the l~orse, the. hog:, and, lastl} several felinCB (creatures of whtch the lion 1s the typr ;, all of which are new forms, as far as we know. There was also an abundance of marine mammalia, seals, dol· phins, lamantins, walruses, and whales, none of which had previously appeared. PLIOCENE SUB-PERIOD. The shells of the older pliocene give from thirty-five to fifty; those of the newer, frorn ninety to ninety-five per cent. of existing species. The pachydern1ata of the preceding era now disappear, and are replaced by others be· longing to still existing families-elephant, hippopotammt, rhinoceros-though now extinct as species. Some of these are startling, from their enormous magnitude. The great mastodon, whose remains are found in abundance in America, was a species of elephant, judged from peculiarities of its teeth, to have lived on aquatic plants, and reaching the height of t\vel ve feet. The mammoth was another elephant, but supposed to have survived till compcn ·ati vely recenl times as a specimen, in all respects entiret was found in 1801, preserved in ice, in Sibena. vVe are more surprised by finding such gigantic proportions in an animal called the megatherium, which ranks in an order now assurning much humbler forms-the edentata-to which the sloth, ant.eater, and armadillo belong. The megatherium had a skeleton of enormous solidity, with an armor-clad body, and five toes, terminating in huge ?laws~ wherewith to grasp the branches, from which, like 1ts existing congener, the 5loth, it deriv ed its food. The mega\onyx was a similar animal, only somewhat less than the preceding Finally, the pliocene gi vcs us for the ERA OF TI-n~ TE RTIARY FORMATION. 69 first time, oxen dec. ruminantia. , t~ camels, and other specimens of the Such is an outline of tl f: ascertained by the illust .. 1e a una o~ the tertiary era, as their attention to It. It n~f{ ~latu~ahsts who fi.rst devoted up. to the felinm o WI. • e obse.rved! that It brings us pOint in the anim~l ; carnivora? a con.siderably elevated quadrumana (monke~:~e~~J\~st~llleaVIng a blank fo! the form, as will be after ·d 01 man, who collectively scale. It sometimes ~ai s see~, the first group in that that a few rare traces o}ppens,. owever as we have seen. in time found in for fa part~C~llar class of animals are thte of them displa~ wns.tonginally thought to be destiment of creation Su ~as 1 were a dawn of that departthe quadrumana · A ? s~ems to b.e the case With at least this order, and b~lon /nacr~~ oneO' and tooth of an animal of ~n the London clay (~ocoeneth) ~f~nus macacus, were f?und 1n 183'9. Another · aw ' yso~, .near Woodbndge, supposed to have b~lon-g~~n~, contai.mng several teeth, three feet high was d · 0d a species of monkey about stratum of marl: surm~~~~:~re about the. same time in a department of Gers at th f, b~ c}~hact limestone, in the ciated with this last were ~e~ . 0 f e Pyrenees. Ass0. mammiferous quadru eds . a1 n~ 0 not less t~an thirty noceros, a large anopforh:ri~~u~ng three.speCies of rhiantelopes, a true do()' a larg -. 't ree ~pec1e~ of deer, two a s1nall hare and h.' e ?a 'an animal like a weazel these. places' are c~ns~~=r~~~1 ~s ~{the e~entata. Bot~ of now Inhabited by the monkey t7-ib 1e no~th ?lf any ~egion q uadrumana have be f, . es. oss1 remains ut of the earth-namelyenthoeundbinH .at lleast tw? other parts . S tl · . ' su - tma ayan h11l ·· n th u. eJ, and 111 Brazil (both in the terf . ~, ear e bemg a large species of sem . 'tl Ia1y strata;) the 1l.L·st still larger aninlal uelonO'in~ofi tY:cus, and. the second, a monkeys but a n e ~ 0 ' ew cyenus and de e A.m encan group of coverer Dr L d t d . . e t ? nomina e by Its dis-four fe;t in .hei~~t~ pro opithecus. The latter \Yould ba f ??~ ~ema!'kable c~rcumstance connected wit). th t,.... laty J.Olmatwn remains to b r d e ._.r- ~altnlcc.of volcanic action ate n1oa:ce~·a-~~~1y,_ t~e pr~- a a Ollla, near Venice and in the ... ·t uvelbne, In Naple~, lavas exactly r~scmbl" th VlCI·ndi y of Rom~ ~nd volcanoes . ~ ~ng e pro uce of ex1shng t.r· , a1e assor.Iated and Intermixed with th 1 lne as well as manne tertiaries . Th e super fi c1. ese oafc tuers-- |