Evolution of Animals 



499 



while "their hkeness to the carnivorous marsupials has also 

 been insisted on" (166: 455). 



While then there seems a direct traceable relation between 

 the Marsupialia and the Carnivora, it is equally true that in 

 the cretaceous and eocene periods like continuity can be traced 

 for the Rodentia, the Insectivora, and the Ungulata. Thus 

 while in x\ustralia the pure and primitive marsupials were 

 branching into physiologically and ecologically distinct groups 

 that retained many marsupial characters, in America and 

 western Europe — probably also over a much wider southern 

 area now submerged — the primitive marsupials became dis- 

 solved into physiologically and ecologically dissimilar groups, 

 which however lost the marked marsupial characters in assum- 

 ing more perfect or more adapted morphological details, that 

 we now associate with the higher mammals. 



But, for our immediate purpose, one line of early and appar- 

 ently direct modification from marsupial ancestry was evi- 

 dently the lemuroid, representatives of which group have 

 been traced back to the earliest eocene, possibly even to the 

 late cretaceous epoch. Thus Indrodon, Notharctus, and Tomi- 

 therium, of the western states, Paloeolemur and Hapalemur 

 of western Europe, and Ccenopithecus of central Europe, all 

 conform to the lemuroid type. 



The living phalangerids of Australia most nearly connect 

 marsupial with lemuroid structure. Below is a table setting 

 forth their points of agreement: 



