xii LIFE OF TERTIARY PERIOD 243 



dus ; several ancestral horses, including the European Anchi- 

 therium ; several ancestral rhinoceroses, the huge horned 

 Brontotheriidae, the Oreodontidae, and many ancestral swine. 

 Almost all these became extinct at the end of the Miocene 

 age. 



In Europe we find very similar phenomena. During 

 the Pleistocene age, the great Irish elk, the cave-lion and the 

 sabre-toothed tiger, cave -bears and hyaenas, rhinoceroses, 

 hippopotami and elephants, extinct species of deer, antelopes, 

 sheep and cattle, were abundant over a large part of Europe 

 (many even reaching our own country), and rapidly became 

 extinct ; and what renders this more difficult to explain is, 

 that all of these and many others, with numerous ancestral 

 forms, had inhabited Europe throughout the Pliocene and 

 some even in Miocene times. 



These very interesting changes in the northern hemi- 

 sphere are paralleled and completed in far-distant Australia. 

 In caves and surface deposits of recent formation a whole 

 series of fossil remains have been found, all of the marsupial 

 order, and most of them of extinct species and even extinct 

 genera. But what is more extraordinary is, that several of 

 them were larger than any now living, while some were as 

 gigantic as the huge ground-sloths and armadillos of the 

 Pampas. There were numerous kangaroos, some much larger 

 than any living, including species allied to the tree-kanga- 

 roos of New Guinea ; a Phascolomys (wombat) as large as a 

 donkey ; the Diprotodon, a thick-limbed animal nearly as 

 large as an elephant, but allied both to the kangaroos and the 

 phalangers. Equally remarkable was the Thylacoleo carnifex, 

 nearly as large as a lion and with remarkable teeth (Fig. 93, 

 p. 240). The very peculiar Nototherium, allied to the 

 wombats, was nearly as large as a rhinoceros ; and several 

 others imperfectly known indicate that they were of larger 

 size than their nearest living allies. 



A number of very similar facts are presented by recently 

 extinct birds. The Moas of New Zealand were of various 

 sizes, but the largest was 8|- feet high when standing naturally, 

 but when raising its body and neck to the fullest extent it 

 would have perhaps reached to a height of 1 2 feet. 



In Madagascar also there was a huge bird, the ^Epyornis, 



