824 GEOLOGY 



ported by the European evidence. Reptiles had very generally 

 assumed modern forms, and were represented by turtle-, snakes, 

 and crocodiles. Amphibians came again to notice in the form of 

 a large salamander, whose remains, found at Oeningen, Switzerland, 

 formerly attained an unworthy celebrity from false identification 

 as a human skeleton, and from the application of the pretentious 

 name Homo diluvii testis. 



Summary. A general view of the American Miocene land fauna 

 shows that the great order of ungulates took precedence in evolu- 

 tion, and that both the odd- and even-toed branches participated 

 actively. Closely following these in importance, and dependent 

 on them for the conditions of their evolution, came the carnivc > 

 Rodents occupied a middle position, and insectivores and lemuroids 

 declined notably. 



The European record bears a similar general interpretation, 

 with the ungulates somewhat less pronouncedly in the lead, the 

 carnivores somewhat better deployed, and the proboscidians a 

 conspicuous factor. The important evolution of the higher pri- 

 mates seems to have been confined to the Old World. 



The Marine Life 



Provincialism dominant. The pronounced provincialism that 

 had been inaugurated in the Oligocene epoch continued throughout 

 the remainder of the Cenozoic era. There was some amelioration 

 during the Miocene, but it was not marked. No essential relief 

 possible so long as the shallow seas remained mere bordering t racts. 

 as in North America, or mere bays and straits, as in Europe. 1 

 the narrow border tracts that were geographically continuous show 

 signs of having been cut into biological sections by interrupting 

 barriers. Such barriers had perhaps been operative in cerl 

 earlier periods, but their influence there is not so well recorded 

 The land area being large, large rivers reached the coast here and 

 there, and poured great volumes of fresh and muddy waters across 

 the shore belt, doubtless forming barriers to some species. th< 

 probably not to all. The warpings of the crust probably projected 

 peninsulas and submarine ridges out upon and perhaps a< 

 continental shelf. These were not only barriers in themselves, but 



