160 THE RECENT. 



upper tertiary epochs. And these curious forms the huge 

 camel-like merycothere and the elephant- antelope sivathere 

 suggest a peculiarity that runs through many of these ter- 

 tiary mammals. Thus, while all the mammalian classes, 

 with the exception of man, are less or more represented in 

 the miocene and pliocene strata of the Old World, one 

 feature that stamps the fauna of the period, and renders it 

 noticeahle even to unprofessional inquirers, is the vast 

 amount of intermediate or inosculating forms. The horns 

 of a ruminant with the proboscis of a pachyderm ; the 

 prehensile lip and dentition of a pachyderm with the light 

 proportions of an antelope ; the blending of horse, camel, 

 and tapir; the inosculating of camel and giraffe these and 

 many other converging characters, appreciable only by the 

 practised anatomist, are features that distinguish the ter- 

 tiary mammals as a strange and peculiar fauna. Nor is it 

 alone the more generalised physiological character, but their 

 bulk is also in many instances a marked peculiarity of the 

 period. The gigantic mammoths and mastodons, the huge 

 hippopotami and rhinoceroses, the great cave-bears and 

 cave-lions, the unwieldy megatheres and glyptodons com- 

 pared with the existing sloths and armadilloes, the mac- 

 rauchene compared with the llama, the trogontherium with 

 the beaver, the diprotodon with the kangaroo, or the dinor- 

 nis with the cassowary all point to creational phases as 

 the tertiary that have ceased to manifest themselves in the 

 current era. The tusks of the mammoth have been found 

 from twelve to fourteen feet (measuring along their outer 

 curve), those of the existing elephant rarely exceed half 

 that length ; the fore-limb of the megathere would far out- 

 weigh the largest living sloth ; the cuirass of the glyptodon 

 would cover more than a score of armadilloes ; the full- 

 grown llama would make but a tiny calf to the macrauchene; 

 and the emeu could walk beneath the stride of the extinct 



