OUR ANCIENT RELATIVES 



to large badgers. These belong mostly to wholly 

 extinct families of placental mammals, usually 

 with very small brains and teeth variously adapted 

 for eating insects, flesh or vegetation. 



In the Basal Eocene formation of Montana have 

 been found teeth and bits of jaws of mammals 

 that apparently were somewhat nearer to the line 

 of human ascent. One lot of teeth and jaws 

 appear to be related remotely to the existing tree- 

 shrews of the Indo-Malayan region. These little 

 animals in many ways approach the lowest of the 

 Primates, especially in the construction of the 

 skull and teeth. 



The second lot of teeth from the Basal Eocene 

 of Montana are judged by Dr. Gidley of the U. S. 

 National Museum to be related distantly to the 

 existing tarsier of Borneo and the Philippine 

 Islands. These very curiously specialized noc- 

 turnal primates (Fig. 31) have enormous eyes, 

 large but simple brains, very short noses and very 

 long hind legs, upon which they hop about among 

 the trees. In brief, the tarsier family appears to 

 be one of those numerous groups that after attain- 

 ing a high level of general organization at a rela- 

 tively early period, start off on an extremely 



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