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Eocene times. He thought that south-western Africa later on 
became united with eastern Africa, thus enabling some of 
these ancient mammals of South American origin to spread 
northward towards Europe and eastward into Asia. But both 
the Manidae and the Orycteropidae are represented in the 
Eocene deposits of southern Europe, while the genus Orycte- 
ropus lived in Samos and on the mainland of Greece in Miocene 
times. Moreover, neither Manis nor Orycteropus are confined 
to southern Africa. Both, are distributed north-eastward as 
far as Kordofan and Senaar. It seems more likely, therefore, 
that these edentates, like the hystricomorphous rodents just 
alluded to, have originated in the Mediterranean region from 
South American ancestors and have spread southward subse¬ 
quently. 
The same problem has also been discussed by Dr. Andrews* 
as the result of his remarkable discoveries of fossil mammals 
in the Fayum of Egypt. All the Carnivora he found there 
belonged to that archaic group known as the “ Creodonta.” 
He argues that the presence of these creodonts in Africa would 
account for the existence of the “ Sparassodonta ” in Pata¬ 
gonia, if we assumed that during the remote period when these 
ancient groups originated, Africa and South America had 
been joined to one another by land. He also brings forward 
another testimony in support of his suggestion, which I shall 
deal with later on. As for the Creodonta, they are so amply 
represented in the early Tertiaries of both North America and 
Europe, that the assumption of a mid-Atlantic land bridge is 
sufficient to explain their presence in these continents as well 
as in Egypt, while Patagonia must have had some land con¬ 
nection with North America in late Cretaceous or early 
Eocene times. 
The distribution of birds does not give us many definite 
suggestions as to former land connections between South 
America and Africa. The range of the parrots (Psittacidae), 
however, points to an affinity between these continents. A 
more striking example seems to be that of the ostrich and 
rhea. The former inhabits exclusively Africa and Arabia, the 
other Argentina and Brazil. Hence we might be tempted to 
Andrews, C. W., “ Tertiary Vertebrates of the Fayum,” p. xxii. 
