Animals Before Man 



mals were described by Ebenezer Emmons 

 so long ago as 1853 on the evidence furnished 

 by three jaws, two of which were imperfect. 

 These represent two species, respectively named 



Dromathermm^ sil- 

 vestre by Professor 

 Emmons and Mi- 



Jaw of Ih^atherium, the earliest Croconoclon teuili- 

 known mammal. Twice natural rostvis UIq^^QV- 

 size. (After Emmons.) ^ 



nosed, minute cone- 

 tooth) by Professor Osbora. Only one of 

 them seems to have been preserved, and as 

 none have been found since, the early his- 

 tory of mammals in this country is necessarily 

 brief. It is still shorter abroad, for in Europe 

 not even jaws have been found, only teeth. 

 And recently Dr. A. S. Woodward has cast a 

 shadow of doubt over all these Triassic mam- 

 mals by suggesting that, after all, they may prove 

 to be anomodonts, those curious mammal-like 

 reptiles described in a previous chapter.* But 



* In support of this theory it may be said that two animals, 

 Theriodesmus and Tritylodon, from South Africa, once considered 

 mammals, are now classed with the Anomodontia. 



186 



