468 ORDERS OF MAMMALIA. 



Man is the only terrestrial Mammal in which the body is 

 not provided with a covering of hair. 



Palseontologically, there is little to be said about Man or, 

 rather, so much might be said on this subject that its discus- 

 sion can only be properly taken up in a special treatise. 

 Man appeared upon the earth, so far as we know, only in the 

 last or Post-Tertiary period of Geology, and his remains, in 

 the form of bones or implements of various kinds, have been 

 detected in various Post-Tertiary accumulations, such as valley- 

 gravels and cave-deposits. The chief facts as to the past exist- 

 ence of man which concern the palaeontological student may 

 be briefly stated as follows : 



1. Man unquestionably existed during the later portion of 

 what Sir Charles Lyell has termed the " Post- Pliocene " period. 

 In other words, Man's existence dates back to a time when 

 several remarkable Mammals, to be afterwards mentioned, had 

 not yet become extinct ; but he does not date back to a time 

 anterior to the present Molluscan fauna. 



2. The antiquity of the so-called Post-Pliocene period is 

 a matter which must be mainly settled by the evidence of 

 Geology proper, and need not be discussed here. 



3. The extinct Mammals with which man coexisted in 

 Western Europe are mostly of large size, the most important 

 being the Mammoth (Elephas frimigenius), the Woolly Rhino- 

 ceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus), the Cave-lion (felts spelaa), 

 the Cave-hyaena (Hycena spd<za\ and the Cave-bear (Ursus 

 spelceus). We do not know the causes which led to the ex- 

 tinction of these Post-Pliocene Mammals ; but we know that 

 no Mammalian species has become extinct during the historical 

 period. 



4. The extinct Mammals with which man coexisted are re- 

 ferable in many cases to species which presumably required a 

 very different climate to that now prevailing in Western Europe. 

 How long a period, however, has been consumed in the bring- 

 ing about of the climatic changes thus indicated we have no 

 means of calculating with any approach to accuracy. 



5. Some of the deposits in which the remains of man have 

 been found associated with the bones of extinct Mammals, are 

 such as to show incontestably that great changes in the phy- 

 sical geography and surface-configuration of Western Europe 

 have taken place since the period of their accumulation. We 

 have, however, no means at present of judging of the lapse of 

 time thus indicated except by analogies and comparisons which 

 may be disputed. 



6. The human implements which are associated with the 



