LIFE 595 



form of a large salamander, whose remains, found at Oeningen, 

 Switzerland, formerly attained an unworthy celebrity from false 

 idi-Mtilication 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 carnivores. 

 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. 



Marine Life 



Provincialism dominant. The pronounced provincialism that 

 had been inaugurated in the Oligocene epoch continued throughout 

 t,he remainder of the Cenozoic era, being favored by the shallow 

 seas about North America, and the bays and straits of Europe. 

 Even the narrow border tracts that were geographically continuous 

 show signs of having been cut into biological sections by interrupting 

 barriers. The land being extensive, 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. 

 The warpings of the crust probably developed submarine ridges on 

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

 but had an influence in directing the courses of the coast currents. 

 Differences of climate in different latitudes had been developed, 

 apparently, and cold and warm currents were probably more pro- 

 nounced than in earlier times, and their shiftings had still graver 

 effects upon the faunas. So, too, the lower temperatures in the 

 northern shore tracts of the Atlantic and Pacific prevented their 

 serving longer as migratory routes for warm-water species, and this 

 tended further to intensify the provincial nature of the shallow- 

 water faunas. 



According to Dall, the Chesapeake Miocene was ushered in by a 

 marked faunal change due to a cold northern current driving out 



