THE MIOCENE PERIOD. 313 



both the Old and New Worlds ; and some of the species attain 

 gigantic dimensions. 



Amongst the Amphibians we meet with distinctly modern 

 types, such as Frogs (Ratio) . 

 and Newts or Salamanders. 

 The most celebrated of the 

 latter is the famous Andrias 

 Scheuchzeri (fig. 242), dis- 

 covered in the year 1725 

 in the fresh-water Miocene 

 deposits of OEningen, in 

 Switzerland. The skeleton 

 indicates an animal nearly 



five feet in length ; and it Fig. 240. Tooth Fig. 24 i.-Tooth 

 was originally described by 

 Scheuchzer, a Swiss physi- 

 cian, in a dissertation published in 1731, as the remains of one 

 of the human beings who were in existence at the time of the 

 Noachian Deluge. Hence he applied to it the name of Homo 

 diluvii testis. In reality, however, as shown by Cuvier, we 

 have here the skeleton of a huge Newt, very closely allied to 

 the Giant Salamander (Menopoma maxima) of Java. 



The remains of Reptiles are far from uncommon in the 

 Miocene rocks, consisting principally of Chelonians and Cro- 

 codilians. The Land-tortoises (Testudinidce) make their first 

 appearance during this period. The most remarkable form 

 of this group is the huge Colossochelys Atlas of the Upper 

 Miocene deposits of the Siwalik Hills in India, described by 

 Dr Falconer and Sir Proby Cautley. Far exceeding any 

 living Tortoise in its dimensions, this enormous animal is 

 estimated as having had a length of about twenty feet, measured 

 from the tip of the snout to the extremity of the tail, and to. 

 have stood upwards of seven feet high. All the details of its 

 organisation, however, prove that it must have been " strictly 

 a land animal, with herbivorous habits, and probably of the 

 most inoffensive nature." The accomplished palaeontologist 

 just quoted, shows further that some of the traditions of the 

 Hindoos would render it not improbable that this colossal 

 Tortoise had survived into the earlier portion of the human 

 period. 



Of the Birds of the Miocene period it is sufficient to re- 

 mark that though specifically distinct, they belong, so far as 

 known, wholly to existing groups, and therefore present no 

 points of special palasontolgical interest. 



The Mammals of the Miocene are very numerous, and only 



