CEA in wy) 
THE DAWN OF MAMMALIAN. LIFE 
THE animals that we considered in the last chapter, though show- 
ing certain unmistakable likenesses to the mammals, are never- 
theless unquestionably not mammals but reptiles. In the 
Triassic strata, however, we first meet with the remains of 
undoubted mammals. The Mammalia first appeared upon the 
earth in a tentative and hesitating way: they had not cast off 
many of the characters of their supposed reptilian forefathers ; 
they shrank from observation and destruction by their small size, 
and apparently, so far at any rate as their teeth afford a clue, by 
an omnivorous diet. The world abounded at that period in large 
and carnivorous reptiles, which may indeed have been the 
principal enemies with which the first mammals had to cope. 
These early mammals lingered on to so late a period as the 
Kocene; but the majority of the genera were Triassic, Jurassic, 
and Cretaceous. Certain of the primitive mammalian forms have 
been referred to the Marsupials, and their resemblances to the 
Monotremata have also been pointed out. The current view of 
the present time, however, is that they form a special order, 
which may possibly have embraced the ancestors of both 
Marsupials and Monotremes ; for it is reasonable to explain in this 
way the combination of characters of these two orders which they 
present. or this group the name Allotheria has been proposed 
by Marsh, and Multituberculata by Cope; the latter term is the 
less suitable, in that the Monotremata (Ornithorhynchus) are also 
“multituberculate.” The group is known in a very imperfect 
fashion. The remains are but few and fragmentary ; and for the 
most part we have only a few teeth to speculate upon. This is 
natural enough, for the harder teeth might easily be supposed to 
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