426 M. Lund on Fossil Mammifera discovered in RraziL 



riety of forms and by the large size of the species. M. Lund notices 

 and describes, in this family alone, twenty-one species, several of 

 which constitute new genera ; he states that he possesses a vast 

 number of fossil remains, which he has not had time hitherto to study 

 in detail. 



All the families hitherto passed in review have shown a superi- 

 ority in number of species, and especially of genera, in favour of the 

 antediluvian period. This is not the case for the two remaining fa- 

 milies, the Cheiroptera and the Slmiee. 



Cheiroptera. 



With regard to the Chcirojytera, says M. Lund, it is but recently 

 that I succeeded in discovering some few remains among the mil- 

 lions of bones of small animals contained in the deposits of some 

 caverns. The heaps of recent bones which are frequently found in 

 the caverns, arising as I have above observed from remains of animals 

 dragged into them by the Strix perlata, contain bones of Cheiroptera 

 in greater number, and it might lead one to conclude that this family 

 was in fact less numerous in the ancient periods than it is at pre- 

 sent. However, as several circumstances lead me to believe that it 

 was by a diurnal bird of prey that the heap of the small fossil bones 

 was formed, this explains, as I shall subsequently show, w^hy the 

 bones of animals of the family in question are more rare amongst 

 them than in the heaps of recent bones. 



SlMI^. 



The existence of Simice at periods previous to the present order of 

 things was a fact yet new to science, when I discovered in the month 

 of July 1836, the first fossil remains of an animal of this family. Since 

 then I have learnt that their presence has been confirmed in Europe 

 and in Asia. I possess fossil bones of two species of this family, one 

 of which, that will not come under any of the existing genera, at- 

 tained the height of four feet {Protopithecus brasiliensis) ; the other 

 approaches considerably to the genUs Callithrix, exceeding it by a 

 height of twice that of the species living at the present day {Calli^ 

 thrix primcevus) . 



I shall conclude by observing that hitherto I have found no trace 

 of the existence of man at this period, 



This rapid glance will suffice to show that the torrid zone of our 

 globe, far from having been uninhabited during the period preceding 

 the now existing state of things, possessed, on the contrary, an ani- 

 mal creation more numerous, more varied, and more gigantic, than 

 that which it sustains at present. 



We also see that South America possessed at that period the same 



