EOCENE PERIOD 119 



Yet other creatures, living probably in densely wooded LEMURS 

 regions, were developing in the direction of lemurs. Some of 

 these were as yet but little distinguishable from insectivores 

 (Mixodectes, Indrodon, Protoadapis) ; whilst others seem to 

 have had close affinities with the primitive flesh-eaters 

 (Chriacus). 



When, therefore, the curtain rises on the first-known scene 

 of the " new dawn," there were not only new but highly 

 important characters on the stage forerunners of hoofed 

 animals, carnivores, edentates, insectivores, and " four- 

 handed " animals. The Orders were certainly not sharply 

 distinguished from one another, but the evidence of progress 

 is not thereby deprived of its significance. It is clear that 

 Evolution had been busily at work ; and one may well ask 

 where. The remains of the " knuckle- jointed " and the 

 " blunt-footed " animals have been found in North America ; 

 the evidence of the insectivores comes from Europe ; whilst 

 the primitive flesh-eaters and the lemur-like animals left 

 their bones on both continents. It does not, of course, follow 

 that any of these animals originated in North America, or in 

 Europe. No traces of their immediate ancestors have been 

 found in either country ; and it is probable that they were 

 emigrants from other lands. Evolution had probably been 

 at its highest activity in parts of Asia and Africa ; and if 

 ever the missing links in early mammal life be forthcoming, 

 it will probably be from the unexplored strata of one or other 

 of those continents. Africa, it is thought, contains the more 

 hopeful strata. 



Marsupials, no doubt, continued to flourish ; but they MARSUPIALS 

 were now to play a subordinate part in mammal life. 

 Opossums were apparently in some force in Europe during 

 this Period, and also in North America. In Australia, which 

 in pre-Eocene times must have lost its mainland connections, 

 marsupial life was no doubt undergoing special developments 

 in the absence of animals of higher rank. 



As the Period advanced, the " knuckle- joint ed " (Condyl- CONDYL- 

 arthra) were in evidence in some variety. One of the most ARTHRA 

 remarkable forms is known as Phenacodus represented both 

 in Europe and in North America. 



