ORIGIN OF MAN AND THE OTHER VERTEBRATES. 609 



But the Condylarthra were also ancestors of a still more important 

 line of mammals. A remarkable type of quadrupeds known as lemurs 

 at present inhabits Madagascar and some parts of Africa and Ma- 

 laysia. These creatures, known by the Germans as Halbaffen, or half- 

 apes, present a curious combination of the characters of monkeys and 

 carnivora of the raccoon pattern. They could easily have stood in the 

 position of parents to the monkeys in general ; and suspicions to this 

 effect have been abundantly confirmed by the discovery of numerous 

 representatives of the sub-order Lemuroidea in the Eocene beds of 

 both Europe and North America. And these again have been traced 

 as certainly to the Condylarthra as ancestors, so that this group is 

 again proved to be the ancestor of man as well as of the hoofed animals. 

 And here was fulfilled another prophecy made by the writer, along 

 with the one already mentioned, viz., that the ancestor of man also, 

 would be found to be a " pentadactyle plantigrade bunodont." 



An especial point of interest in the phylogeny of man has been 

 brought to light in our North American beds. There are some things 

 in the structure of man and his nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, 

 orang, etc., that lead us to suspect that they have not descended 

 directly from true monkeys, but that they have rather come from 

 some extinct type of lemurs. Lemurs, which fulfill this anticipation, 

 have been found in our Eocene beds, and belong to a peculiar genus 

 which bears the name of Anaptomorphus. These creatures have a 

 dentition more like that of the anthropoid apes than any living lemur 



Fig. 2. Skull op the Primitive Lemur (Anar>tomorphn$ hornunculus} (Conel. Natural size, 

 except Fig. d, which is four thirds natural size. (Prom the Eocene of Wyoming.) 



exhibits. They had the most acute senses of sight and hearing, if we 

 may judge from the bony parts which surrounded those organs. They 

 also had larger brains than those of any other mammal of their period, 

 though they did not differ much in this respect from the existing 

 vol. xxvn. 39 



