282 ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 



as they are not supposed to be subject to accidental dispersal. 

 The West Indian mammals * consist of a mixture of exceed- 

 ingly ancient and of apparently much more modern types, and 

 yet all are distinct enough from mainland forms to exclude the 

 idea of recent land connections of the Greater Antilles either 

 with Central America or the two neighbouring continents. 



The most ancient mammal found in the West Indian 

 islands is the curious insectivore Solenodon. It is the sole 

 genus of the family Solenodontidae, whose nearest living 

 relations are the Centetidae of Madagascar and West Africa. 

 The two Antillean forms (S. paradoxus and S. cubanus) f are 

 in general quite similar. Yet they differ somewhat in size, 

 colour and dentition, as well as in the shape of the skull, and 

 for that reason are perfectly distinct species. The first is con- 

 fined to Haiti,: the other to Cuba. Professor Leche J expresses 

 the view that Madagascar lost its continental land connection 

 already during the Eocene Period. Hence the Centetidae may 

 be of early Tertiary or even Mesozoic age. Professor Leche 

 believes in a former land connection between Madagascar and 

 Africa, and in another between Africa and Brazil. Both of 

 these must have existed about the same time, and they were 

 used presumably by the ancestors of the Centetidae and 

 Solenodontidae in passing from Madagascar to South 

 America, and thence to the West Indies, or vice versa. 



The only large West Indian mammals, Capromys and 

 Plagiodontia, belong to the rodents. The hutias, as they are 

 called, remind us somewhat of the great rat-like South 

 American coypu, but the tail is longer and they possess 

 arboreal habits and certain structural characters differing 

 from the latter. The two genera of hutia are quite confined 

 to the West Indies. Three species of Capromys are known 

 from Cuba, one from the Bahamas and one from Jamaica. 

 Still another Capromys inhabits the small Swan island, in the 

 Gulf of Honduras, mid-way between Jamaica and Central 

 America. Nevertheless, the genus is quite unknown from the 

 mainland. The other genus (Plagiodontia) only occurs on 



* Allen, Glover M., "Mammals of West Indies." (This work was 

 received too late for discussion.) 



t Allen, J. A., "Notes on Solenodon paradoxus," pp. 507 515. 

 t Leche, W., " Centetidae, Solenodontidae, &c.," pp. 132139. 



