572 



EOCENE AND OLIGOCENE PERIODS 



as to attract popular attention, and call forth legends of divers 

 catastrophes. 



Birds. Fossils of many types of birds, such as gulls, herons, 

 eagles, owls, quails, plovers, and flightless birds of great size, show 

 great deployment of this class. 



Reptiles and amphibians. One of the greatest contrasts in 

 geological history is found in comparing the size, power, and multi- 

 tude of the Cretaceous land reptiles with those of the Eocene. Of 

 the great saurians, only a few lived on into the early Eocene. Land 

 reptiles seem to have become rare early in the period, though there 



a ^ J rx 



Fig. 481. EOCENE FORAMINIFERA. a, Nodosaria bacittum Defrance; b, N. 

 communis (d'Orbigny); c, Anomalina ammonoides (Reuss); d, Cristcllaria gibba 

 d'Orbigny; e, C. radiata (Bornemann) ; /, g, and h, Globigerina bulloidcs d'Orbigny; 

 i, Vaginalina legumen (Linne);./, Discorbina turbo (d'Orbigny); k, TruncaluUna 

 lobatiila (Walker and Jacob); I, Textularia subangulata (d'Orbigny). Magnified 

 8 to 40 times. (Maryland Geol. Surv.) 



were turtles on the land and in the sea, and some of them attained 

 large size. There were crocodiles which belonged about equally to 

 land and water; also snakes, some of them large. Amphibians 

 were present, but apparently not abundant. 



Insect life. There has been little important change in the in- 

 sect world since the beginning of the Cenozoic. Few new families 

 have appeared, though genera and species have changed. 



