THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



ORNITHORHYNCHUS PARADOXUS, 



the -water duck-bill, a mammal of Australia which lays eggs and 

 is closely related to the primeval ancestors of present-day 

 mammals. 



is that these duckbills show us the more ancient 

 group of ancestors below the marsupials. In 

 other words, Australia has preserved for us a few 

 "last Mohicans," witnesses to a certain stage in 

 the development of mammals and of man in the 

 far off days of the primitive world. And all that 

 would now be required to complete the proof 

 would be genuine historical testimony given by 

 primitive fossil duckbill bones, such as furnished 

 the required proof in the case of the marsupials. 

 For a while it seemed as if this group would not 

 be forthcoming. It is true that various little 

 teeth and remains of small mammal bones, not 

 belonging to any class represented by living 

 mammals, not even the marsupials, were found 

 in the strata of the age of the great saurians far 



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