DISCONTINUOUS DISTRIBUTION OF MA;MMALS. 



685 



have also been unable to produce a Primate-like form. It is true 

 that one such has been found fossil, but this form is not similar 

 to the Old- World Primates, as we should have expected, but so 

 similar to the New-World Primates that a land connection between 

 Madagascar and South America over Africa has even been 

 postulated. Now, in Europe fossil Lemuroids (Microchccrus and 

 Adapis) have been found which differ from Lemurs and agree 

 with the Primates in having the lower canines caniniform, 

 whereas in the Lemurs they are incisiform, the first lower pre- 

 molar being caniniform. It is therefore evident that the Old- 

 World Primates are not descended from the Southern Lemurs, 

 but form a parallel series with them, the area of their origin 

 having apparently been Southern Asia, if we are to judge by 

 the assemblage of forms found ifossil in India. The American 

 Primates, as I have already mentioned, are particularly like the 

 Lemurs, and the only way in which we can represent the ancestry 

 of the whole group would be thus : — 



A^. AMERICA 



EUROPE 



ASIA 



S.AMERICA 



AFRICA 



lAOAOASCM 



AUSTRALASIA 



Leaving, then, the absence of Ungulates and Primates from 

 Madagascar and Australia, we may compare the forms actually 

 produced. 



The similarity between the Cuscuses and Galagininae is most 

 probable the similarity of the original forms. 



Insectivora. — The only convincingly . Insectivoran-like 

 animal of Australia is the marsupial mole (Notoryctes), and it 

 is very suggestive that an authority on mammals should have 

 insisted on its relationship to the Cape Golden Moles (Chryso- 

 chloris), an insectivoran in the Lemur region, and one, more- 

 over, differing very widely from the Northern Talpidse in the 

 method of fitting the front limb to the breast. Madagascar, 

 however, has typical Insectivores in the Centetidse, and again, it 

 is curious that their nearest relations should be in the American 

 region (also a marsupial region), namely, the Solenodons of 



