Tertiary Age of Mammals. 93 



these. The reptilian teeth and vertebrated tail disappear and birds 

 become birds instead of flying reptiles. 



The Tertiary birds of the United States were such birds as we yet 

 have, woodpeckers, eagles, owls, etc. But in Europe, the birds, like 

 the plants, were in part tropical parrots, trogons, adjutants, &c. , be- 

 sides cranes, swallows, pheasants, owls, vultures, &c. But the crown- 

 ing fact of the Tertiary was the existence of the placental mammals. In 

 the first epoch of the Tertiary they are found in large numbers in the 

 western part of the United States. "Marsh finds 150 species of verte- 

 brates of which the larger number are mammals, some herbivora, some 

 camivora and some Lemurine monkeys. The same species do not con- 

 tinue through the Tertiary. On the contrary the mammalian fauna 

 changes completely several times in the course of that period." 6 The 

 greater number of the mammals are herbivores, and the predominant 

 type is that of the Tapir. But nearly all the types are of a general and 

 connecting nature combining characteristics that are now specialized and 

 and divided among several types. There are 40 species of Tapir-Hkr. 

 animals in 1-Yance in the Eocene none of them Tapirs. The Palaeotho- 

 rium was ;i cross between the Tapir and the Horse of the present. It 

 had three hoofed toes on each foot. The Tapir now has three on his 

 hind feet and four on his front feet. The Paleothere had a long ncrk 

 and high head and long legs, in which respects lie more resembled the 

 Horse than Tapir. 



Another, the Anoplothere, had a long tail and two toes on each foot 

 and was devoid of u snout. He is thought to be a connecting link be- 

 tween the Tapir and the Ruminants. In the American Eocene seventy or 

 eighty species of mammals have been found (in the Green River Basin 

 fresh water deposits S. W. Colorado). The most of them are more or 

 less Tapir-like. Another, the Binoceras, was elephantine in size, had 

 six horns, two tusks and probably a trunk or snout, and five toed feet. 

 The Tillotherium combined characteristics of the bear and rodent with 

 the general features of the Ungulates. TheOreodonof the Miocene of 

 Nebraska combined features of the hog, the deer and the camel and 

 ranged from Nebraska to Oregon. There are also many species related 

 to the camel and horse. 



Then; was u marked improvement between the Eocene and Miocene, 

 (lie same species becoming larger, and the new orders and genera being 

 of the greater and more bulky types. The Dinotherium of the Miocene 

 of India, an immense brute, "combined in the structure of its head the 

 cliaraeters of Elephant, Hippopotamus, Tapir and Dugong ; but it :il-o 

 had affinities with Marsupials" for it possessed the J>OH<-/, fmntx. 1 The 

 Sivatherinm from the same quarter, an enormous Antelope with four 



LeCoute496. 7 Le Cout<? 498- 



