238 REPORT — 1844. 



remoter continents of the earth ? — Africa also having its Hyaena, its Elephant, 

 its Rhinoceroses, and its great feline Carnivores. The discovery of extinct 

 species of Camelopardalis in both Europe and Asia, of which genus the sole 

 existing representative is now, like the Hippopotamus, confined to Africa, adds 

 to the propriety of regarding the three continuous continental divisions of 

 the Old World as forming, in respect to the geographical distribution of plio- 

 cene, post-pliocene and recent Mammalia, one great natural province. The 

 only large Edentate animal {Pangolin gigantesque, Cuvier, Macrotherium, 

 Lartet) hitherto found in the tertiary deposits of Europe, but in those of an 

 earlier period (older pliocene or miocene) than the deposits to whose mam- 

 malian Ibssils the present comparison more immediately refers, manifests its 

 nearest affinities to the genus Manis, which is exclusively Asiatic and African. 



Extending our comparison between the existing and the latest of the ex- 

 tinct series of Mammalia to the continent of South America, it may be first 

 remarked, that with the exception of some of the carnivorous and Cervine 

 species, no representatives of the above-cited mammalian genera of the Old 

 World of the geographer have yet been found in South America. BufFon* long 

 since enunciated this generalization with regard to the existing species and 

 genera of Mammalia ; it is almost equally true in respect of the fossil. Not a 

 relic of an Elephant, a Rhinoceros, a Hippopotamus, a Bison, a Hyaenaf, or 

 a Lagomys, has yet been detected in the caves or the more recent tertiary de- 

 posits of South America. On the contrary, most of the fossil Mammalia from 

 those formations are as distinct from the Europseo-Asiatic forms, as they are 

 closely allied to the peculiarly South American existing genera of Mammalia. 



The genera Equus, Tapirus, and the still more ubiquitous Mastodon, fomi 

 the chief, if not sole exceptions. The representation oi Equus, during the plio- 

 cene period by distinct species in Asia {E. primigenius) and in South Ame- 

 rica (£'. cu7'videns), is analogous to the geographical distribution of the 

 species of Tapirus at the pi-esent day. Fossil Tapirs have been found both 

 in Europe and in South America. 



Pangolins still exist in Asia and in Africa, and, as we have seen, a gigantic 

 extinct species of Manis has been found in the middle tertiary beds of Europe, 

 but not a trace of a scaly Anteater, recent or extinct, has been discovered in 

 South America, where the Edentate order is so richly represented by other 

 generic and specific forms. 



South America alone is now inhabited by species of Sloth, of Armadillo, of 

 Cavy, Aguti, Ctenomys, and platyrrhine Monkey, and no fossil remains of a 

 quadruped referable to any of these genera have yet been discovered in 

 Europe, Asia or Africa. The types of Bradypus and Dasypus were, how- 

 ever, richly represented by diversified and gigantic specific forms in South 

 America, during the geological periods immediately preceding the present ; 

 and fossil remains of extinct species of Cavia, Ccehgenys, Ctenomys, and 

 Cebus, have hitherto been detected exclusively in the continent where these 

 genera still as exclusively exist. Auchenia more remotely typifies Macrau- 

 cJienia. Mr. Waterhouse informs me that the murine fossils in the rich col- 

 lection of remains from Brazilian caverns, lately received at the British Mu- 

 seum, all belong to the genus Hesperomys, the aboriginal living representative 



♦ Cited liy Lyell in tlie Principles of Geology, 1837, vol. iii. p. 27. 



t Dr. Lund (Danish Transactions, ffirsted, Kibbenh, 1842, p. 16.) discovered the remains cf 

 an extinct Carnivore in a Brazihan cavern, which he at first announced as a species of Hyana, 

 but he has since recognised very distinctive dental characters, and refers it to a new genus, 

 which he calls Smilodon : from the figiu-es which he has given of the canine and incisor teeth 

 it seems to Ijelong to the same genus {Machairodus) as the so-called Ursus cidtridens of Eu- 

 rope, and this is certainly the case with portions of the skull, lower jaw and teeth, since dis- 

 covered in the Pampas of Buenos Ajtcs, and now in the British Museum. 



