314 TOWARDS THE HUMAN FORM 



(the Afro-Brazilian continent), while Asia and Africa furnished 

 a whole series of Bears, 1 a new anthropoid, Dryopithecus, a 

 tailed Monkey of the Afro-Asiatic type, Oreopithecus, and 

 Chalicotheriiim, which had already existed in the Orleanais 

 sands. The Pontian fauna of Pikermi near Athens and that of 

 Mount Leberon near Avignon are celebrated by the researches of 

 Albert Gaudry. It was in connexion with the first of these that 

 this eminent scientist, before Darwin and relying entirely 

 upon his own observations, had the courage to reinstate the 

 theory of evolution abandoned since the days of Lamarck. 

 The Pontian fauna is particularly rich, and Gaudry's poetic 

 mind lent realit}' to the Lion of Nemea, the Boar of 

 Erymanthus, and the Goat of Amalthea, 2 whose generic names 

 suffice to indicate how nearly this fauna approached to that of 

 to-day. The Felidae even surpassed in their evolution the 

 point arrived at by the Lion in a form now extinct, but which 

 must have been redoubtable. This was Machcerodus. Its 

 long upper canines, flattened and curved like the blade of a 

 scimitre, pointed, sharp, and notched on the inner surface, 

 must have been terrible weapons. Their development was 

 such that the animal could not bite with its incisors, but tore 

 strips of flesh from its prey with the powerful canines in order 

 to drink the blood of its victims. This costly diet must have 

 led to the creature's rapid disappearance as Antelopes became 

 thinned out. It had only two molars in the upper jaw and three, 

 including one which was rudimentary, in the lower. The 

 Antelopes, preyed upon by Hyaena, 3 were already divided into 

 numerous genera, probably of African origin : Gazelles, 

 Palceoryx, Palceorcas and Protragelaphus — and they were 

 accompanied by the first Roedeer, 4 which initiated the series 

 of Ruminants with ramified antlers, and the earliest Sheep 

 {Criotherium). The Giraffe family was represented by many 

 genera. One of these, Helladotherium, which Albert Gaudry 

 dedicated to Greece, was remarkable for the relative shortness 

 of its neck and the absence of horns, and was almost exactly 

 like the Okapi, which differs from it only in the presence of 



1 Pseudarctos, Hycenarctos, Ursavus. 



2 Tragoceras. 



3 Lychycena, Hycenictis, Hy&na. 



4 The African origin of the Roedeer is perhaps a little doubtful ; the lateral 

 metatarsals of these deer are, in fact, atrophied in the same fashion as those of 

 the American Cervidse, of which only one, the Canadian deer, shows the same 

 kind of atrophy of the lateral metatarsals as the European Cervidae. 



