LIFE OF FLOWER 151 



that Platanista^ which, as mentioned above, appears to 

 retain more of the primitive characteristics of the group 

 than any other existing form, and also the distantly 

 related Inia from South America, are both at the 

 present day exclusively fluviatile, may point to the fresh- 

 water origin of the whole group, in which case their 

 otherwise rather inexplicable absence from the seas of 

 the Cretaceous period would be accounted for. 



" On the other hand, it should be observed that the 

 teeth of the Zeuglodonts approximate more to a carni- 

 vorous than to an ungulate type." 



This difficulty with regard to the teeth is indeed one 

 which it is impossible to disregard, since it is scarcely 

 credible that grinding teeth such as characterise herbi- 

 vorous mammals of all descriptions could ever have 

 been modified into the teeth of whales, either living or 

 extinct. There is, moreover, the unmistakable resem- 

 blance presented by the cheek-teeth of the aforesaid 

 extinct zeuglodons to those of Carnivora. Both these 

 facts seem to point to the derivation of toothed whales, 

 at any rate, from flesh-eating rather than herbivorous 

 mammals ; although they have certainly no relationship 

 with the eared seals. 



Since the foregoing passage was written it has been 

 practically demonstrated that the toothed whales, at 

 any rate, are the descendants of primitive Carnivora. 

 Professor E. Fraas, of Stuttgart, and Dr. C. W. 

 Andrews, of the British Museum, have, for instance, 

 shown that the zeuglodons are derived from the Eocene 

 group of Carnivora known as Creodontia ; while there is 

 every reason for regarding the zeuglodons themselves 

 as the ancestors of modern toothed whales. 





