222 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
quently the most ancient Amniota, then the origin of this 
main class must necessarily have taken place in the 
preceding period, towards the end of the primary, namely, 
in the Permian period. However, all other remains of 
Reptiles, which were formerly believed to have been found 
in the Permian and the Coal system, or even in the Devonian 
system, have been proved to be either not remains of 
Reptiles at all, or to belong to a more recent date (for the 
most part to the Trias). (Compare Plate XIV.) 
The common hypothetical primary form of all Amniotic 
animals, which we may call Protamnion, and which was 
possibly nearly related to the Proterosaurus, very probably 
stood upon the whole mid-way between salamanders and 
lizards, in regard to its bodily formation. Its descendants 
divided at an early period into two different lines, one of 
which became the common primary form of Reptiles and 
Birds, the other the primary form of Mammals. 
Of all the three classes of Amniota, Reptiles (Reptilia, or 
Pholidota, also called Sauria in the widest sense), remain at 
the lowest stage of development, and differ least from their 
ancestors, the Amphibia. Hence they were formerly uni- 
versally included among them, although their whole 
organization is much more like that of Birds than Amphibia. 
There now exist only four orders of Reptiles, namely,— 
Lizards, Serpents, Crocodiles, and Tortoises. They, however, 
form but a poor remnant of the exceedingly various and 
highly developed host of Reptiles which lived during the 
Mesolithic, or Secondary epoch, and predominated over all 
other Vertebrata. The immense development of Reptiles 
during the Secondary epoch is so characteristic that we 
could as well name it after those animals as after the 
