CAINOZOIC AGE 

 PLIOCENE PERIOD 



LATER EPOCH 



LATER Pliocene strata record many changes in animal life, 

 both in development and distribution. The old-fashioned 

 long-chinned elephants (Tetrabelodon), and the brutes with 

 tusks curving down from a bent under-jaw (Dinotheriuni), 

 seem to have become quite extinct, not only in Europe, but 

 in other lands. 



EUROPE Europe was now invaded by mastodons (M. arvernensis, 



ELEPHANTS M. Borsoni}, and thither also had true elephants made their 



way. Among the latter were some fine beasts (E. meridion- 



alis), standing fully fourteen feet high three feet taller 



than " Jumbo " of recent fame. 



HORSES One-toed horses which, so far as is known, were con- 

 fined in the earlier Pliocene to Asia and North America, 

 were now grazing on European pastures. Some seem to 

 have been of zebra character (E. stenonis) ; others were 

 possibly ancestors of Exmoor and other ponies of the so- 

 called Keltic type (E. ligeris). Old-fashioned horses with 

 " extra " toes were still to be seen, but they were insignificant 

 in number, and fast disappearing (Hippariori). 

 TAPIRS Tapirs numerous on the continent in earlier Pliocene 

 times were evidently finding conditions unfavourable, for 

 RHINO- they were much reduced in numbers. Rhinoceroses, how- 

 CEROSES ever, still continued in force ; and some of them were now 

 furnished with big horns, effectively supported by increased 

 HIPPO- ossifications on the snout (R. etruscus). Hippopotamuses 

 POTAMUSES were bathing in the waters. These European forms, owing 

 to a reduced dentition, were more in line with modern hippo- 



182 



