DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALIA IN TIME. 647 



In most essential respects the Mastodons (fig. 278) resemble 

 the Elephants, but the molar teeth were furnished with nipple- 

 shaped eminences. Usually there are two tusk-shaped upper 

 incisors, but sometimes lower incisors are present as well 

 Four Mastodons occur in the Miocene of Europe, and three in 

 that of India. 



No Elephant has yet been discovered in the Miocene rocks 

 of Europe, but six species are known from Miocene strata in 

 India. In the Pliocene period Europe possessed its Elephants 

 (viz., E. priscus and E. meridionalis] ; but the best known of 

 the extinct Elephants, as well as the most modern, is the 

 Mammoth (E. prhnigenius, fig. 279). The Mammoth enjoyed 

 a very extended geographical distribution, remains of it occur- 

 ring in Britain, continental Europe, Siberia, and throughout a 



Fig. 279. Skeleton of the Mammoth (F.lephas primi genius). 



large portion of North America. There can also be no ques- 

 tion but that the Mammoth existed in the earlier portion of the 

 human period. 



Order IX. Carnivora. If the little Microlestes of the Upper 

 Trias be Marsupial, as is most probably the case, then the 

 order Carnivora is comparatively modern, the earliest un- 

 doubted remains having been found in the Eocene rocks. In 

 the Eocene period, however, the families of the Canidce and 

 Felidcz appear to have been already differentiated. The Ur- 

 sidcz, Viverridcz, Mustelidcz, Hycznidcz, and Phocidcz, do not seem 

 to have made their appearance before the Miocene period. 

 In the Pliocene and Post-pliocene periods almost all the 

 existing types of the Carnivora are represented by extinct forms, 

 whilst in the latter the remains of various living species are 

 found associated with other animals which have at the present 

 day entirely passed away. The tribe of the Felidcz is repre- 

 sented in the Miocene period by the large Machairodus, with 



