V 



10 THE DESCENT OF THE PRIMATES 



present. Both in Europe and in America the 

 Tertiary deposits contain very numerous remains 

 of species undoubtedly more or less closely allied 

 to the present Lemuroids, and we may look upon 

 this order as one which, like the Ungulates, has 

 ever so many more fossil than living representa- 

 tives, and which has in those former epochs 

 taken a much more prominent part in the consti- 

 tution of the mammalian fauna than it does now. 

 At the same time comparative anatomy shows us 

 that the Lemurian type of structure can have 

 been derived from one which need not have 

 been very distant from that of a collective type, 

 such as, for example, the Condylarthra, in which 

 not only Ungulate and Creodont, but also Meso- 

 dont (Lemurian) characteristics are represented. 



At any rate the Lemurs are in no respect a 

 very specialized order of Mammals. 



Now it is in this order, as I have just told you, 

 that both Tarsius and Anaptomorphus have been 

 placed by the systematists. With what right ? 

 we are bound to inquire. I, for one, would reply 

 to this question : With none at all ; and I am 

 going to argue the case with you. 



The only real resemblance is the opposable 

 thumb, which we find on the fore and hind limbs 

 botli in the Lemurs and in Tarsius, as also the 



