EXTINCT ANIMALS 



size. Hence it is concluded that these particular 

 living animals are the reduced and dwindled 

 representatives of a race of primeval monsters. 

 There is some truth in this, as you will see from 

 the history of the living sloths and armadilloes 

 of South America, as compared with the giant 

 extinct sloths and armadilloes dug up in that 

 country. The same relation is true as to the 

 kangaroos and wombats now living in Australia 

 as compared with gigantic extinct creatures of 

 the same kind (Fig. 182) which are dug up in 

 Australia in sands and morasses of late geological 

 date. But it is a great mistake to conclude from 

 this that it is a law of Nature that recent animals 

 are all small and insignificant as compared with 

 their representatives in the past. That is 

 simply not true. Recent horses are bigger than 

 extinct ones, and much bigger than the three- 

 toed and four-toed ancestors of horses. Recent 

 elephants are as big as any that have existed, 

 and much bigger than the earlier elephantine 

 ancestors. There never has been any creature 

 of any kind — mammal, reptile, bird, or fish — • 

 in any geological period we know of, so big as 

 some of the existing whales, the Sperm Whale, 

 the Great Rorqual, and the Whale-bone whales. 



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