FIFTH CRETACEOUS PERIOD. 



Synopsis of the Animal Kingdom (exclusive of Annulata) during the 

 Fifth Cretaceous Period. 



439. The outlines of the seas were nearly the same as in the 

 former period ; the shores, however, retired at several points, and 

 especially in the Pyrenean hasin, from the Loire Inferieure to 

 La Vendee in the Mediterranean basin, upon all the known 

 points, and in the chain of the Alps from La Malle in the depart- 

 ment of the Var to Switzerland. 



The continents underwent a corresponding change. The seas 

 were very animated, as is evident from the vast number of 

 Mollusca (fig. 14), and Echinodermata found upon the shores. They 

 were also remarkable for numerous submarine reefs. 



440. It would appear, from the fossil woods so frequently found, 

 that the land was clothed with splendid vegetation, but owing to 

 the destructive effects of the geological convulsion which followed, 

 no complete remains either of plants or terrestrial animals have 

 been found. 



441. From the local absence of this fifth Cretaceous stage, 

 it appears, that independently of several isolated points of 

 land in France and Prussia during this period, a surface of 

 dry land existed in Russia extending over 40 of longitude; 

 another in North America measuring 30 ; and others in South 

 America and in India, which must have been above the surface of 

 the waters, since no deposit corresponding with this stage appears 

 there. Since all these regions were submerged in the succeeding 

 period, it must be inferred that subsidence of the land over a 

 great extent took place. This subsidence, according to M. 

 D'Orbigny, extended from the torrid zone in the southern hemi- 

 sphere to the 34 of latitude, and in the northern hemisphere to 



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