224 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



An equally strange monster has been found in Egypt, 

 and forms a new sub-order, Barypoda. It Is known from a 

 very complete skull (Fig. 76, p. 223), which is remarkable 

 for the very regular set of teeth, as well as for the wonderful 

 horn-cores, two small at the back and two enormous ones 

 projecting in front. The skull is nearly 3 feet long, and 

 the larger horn-cores about 2^ feet ; and as these certainly 

 carried true horns they probably surpassed any of the 

 Dinocerata. Large quantities of detached bones have also 

 been obtained, sufficient to show that the creature was an 

 ungulate of elephantine dimensions and altogether unique 

 in appearance. 



Order — Carnivora 



These can also be traced back to middle or late Eocene 

 times both in North America and Europe. They were 

 moderate -sized animals, forming a distinct sub-order, 

 Creodonta, the skeleton of one of which is shown in 

 Fig. 77- They had flesh -eating teeth, but more like 

 those of the carnivorous marsupials of Australia than of our 

 living carnivores, with a type of skeleton showing consider- 

 able lightness and activity. Some of the species were as 

 large as lions. 



Some of the older remains in South America, called 

 Sparassodonta, are believed to belong to the same or an 

 allied sub-order. They occur in beds of Lower Miocene age 

 in Patagonia ; and Mr. Lydekker holds them to be " un- 

 doubtedly marsupials," allied to the Dasyuridae of Australia. 

 One of these has been named Prothylacinus, from the 

 resemblance of its jaw to that of the Tasmanian wolf 

 {Thylacinus australis). Other small species forming a 

 distinct family, Microbiotheridae, he also thinks were prob- 

 ably " minute polyprodont marsupials of Australian type." x 



1 Geog. Hist, of Mammals, pp. 1 1 i-i 12. From these facts and others referred 

 to in my preceding chapter, Mr. Lydekker thinks that "it is difficult to come to 

 any other conclusion than that the ancestors of the Santa Crucian polyprotodont 

 marsupials reached the country either by way of the Antarctic continent or 

 by a land-bridge in a more northern part of the Pacific." To avoid a break of 

 connection in the present exposition, I have briefly stated some of the diffi- 

 culties in the way of such a theory in an Appendix to this chapter. The whole 

 subject of the "Permanence of Oceanic and Continental Areas" is more fully 

 discussed in my volumes on Darwinism and Island Life. 



XL 







