LIFE 669 



mals, including the reindeer, the arctic fox, etc., reached the moun- 

 tains of southern Europe, and even the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 During the second interglacial epoch, a temperate flora and fauna 

 succeeded the arctic ones which had just preceded. The plants 

 which then occupied northern Germany and central Russia imply a 

 climate milder than the present, and the mammalian fauna, which 

 included the hippopotamus and elephant (Elephas antiquus], was 

 in keeping with the flora. Toward the close of this interglacial 

 epoch, northerly forms began to appear, and as the third glacial 



Fig. 543. A club-tailed glyptodon, Dosdicurus davkaudatus, from South 

 America. (Lydekker.) 



epoch came on, northern types advanced well to the south. In the 

 third interglacial epoch the climate seems to have been congenial to 

 a cool-temperate fauna. 



During the remaining epochs the oscillations of the ice appar- 

 ently were less. Corresponding to these diminishing oscillations the 

 to-and-fro migrations of life appear to have become less extensive. 



Pleistocene life of other continents. While the Pleistocene life 

 of North America was similar to that of Europe, that of South 

 America had a character quite its own. Its most distinctive fea- 

 tures were (i) gigantic sloths and armadillos, indigenous to South 

 America and very numerous, and (2) descendants of the Pliocene 

 mammals which had migrated from North America. Among the 

 northern immigrants were horses, mastodons, llamas, tapirs, wolves, 

 and a variety of rodents. 



