LIFE IX THE PAST 13 



the flying "dragons'' and kangaroo-like dinosaurs. The birds of 

 this time are but poorly known ; some had teeth ; others were very 

 similar to those of the present; still others were flightless and very 

 expert divers suggesting in some respects the penguins and the 

 recently extinct great auks. Very little is known of the insect 

 life of this the Cretaceous Period. There were beetles, grass- 

 hoppers, dragonflies, etc. Butterflies, bees and flies first became 

 abundant at the close of the Cretaceous or somewhat later. 



During the Tertiary the life was in some respects quite dif- 

 ferent than during the Cretaceous. While Mammals had been 

 either totally absent here during the Cretaceous or exceedingly 

 rare, they were predominant in the Tertiary. There were few rep- 

 tiles, except for land tortoises and an occasional crocodile. Among 

 the mammals were some forms which were ancestral to modern 

 mammals and others such as the Titanotheres have left no 

 descendants. Remains of birds have beln found but rarely here. 

 However, a fossil bird's egg was found by Wm. H. Over in the 

 badlands at Reva Gap in the Slim Buttes. In some of the asphalt 

 pools of California numerous large Tertiary birds have been pre- 

 served. Many are very modern. The relative absence of fossils 

 of the smaller kincfc of birds suggests that small birds have since 

 then increased in numbers more than the large ones. Civilization 

 at least has been less severe on the small birds than on the large 

 ones. I know of no fossil insect having been discovered in the 

 Tertiary of South Dakota, but at a few other localities, notably 

 Florissant, Colorado, hundreds of species, representing almost all 

 the modern orders and even many modern families and genera 

 have been discovered. 



The Tertiary flora of this region is shown chiefly by leaf 

 prints in the shale was likely not greatly different from the 

 modern flora though tree ferns, sequoras or giant redwood, tulip 

 tree, magnolia, etc., supplemented our flora. However, it is 

 quite probable that some families such as the grasses, legumes 

 (peas, etc.), composites (aster, sage, etc.) were less predominant 

 than at present. It also seems probable that there was a smaller 

 number of species of the higher flowering plants then than now. 



2. At the coming of \Yhite Man into this region. 



The fauna and flora was different from that of today, mainly 

 in regard to the larger forms. In 1850 there were wild horses 



