EVOLUTION OF CARNIVORA. 525 



Elephants, Mastodon and Dinotlierium, which date from the Mio- 

 cene period, have furnished no palaeontological evidence of their 

 parentage, and in many other groups the evidence is imperfect. 



Edentates lived in Europe in the Eocene and Miocene periods, 

 though, in America, they are only known from the newest deposits. 

 Macrotherium was an enormous animal of the Middle Miocene, which 

 had relatively small hind limbs, and claws drawn back towards the 

 metacarpals, so as not to impede progression on the ground. It might 

 have been a climber. Ancylotherium^ from Pikermi, is intermediate 

 between climbing and walking edentates. Rodents occur in the 

 Headon and Bembridge beds ; porcupines in the Upper Miocene of 

 Greece ; hares in the Pliocene of Auvergne ; beavers in the Upper 

 Miocene, and the extinct genera only differ from those now living in 

 minor characters. Hedgehogs are found in the Miocene of Auvergne, 

 moles in the same strata, in the Rhine, and at the foot of the Pyrenees. 

 Shrews are also Miocene, plesiosorex being so generalised as to present 

 some characteristics of a hedgehog. 



The Carnivora are fully represented in a fossil state. Pseudcdurus 

 is a primitive cat, which commenced in the Upper Eocene phosphorites 

 of France ; and there is a regular succession of Felidae through the 

 Miocene and Pliocene periods, though the true cats are most numerous 

 in the newest Tertiary. It is only in the Smilodon of Buenos Ayres 

 that we have evidence that the claws become retractile. There may 

 be some reason for thinking that carnivorous animals are descended 

 from the herbivora, since bears most nearly resemble the pachyderms. 

 The Miocene genus Amphicyon had the most striking characteristics 

 of dogs, yet was plantigrade like a bear, was probably able to climb, 

 and resembled bears in minor dental characters. The genus Hyce- 

 narctos has an inner row of denticles to the teeth, and thus is inter- 

 mediate between bears and Amphicyon. In the same way Cynodon, 

 from the phosphorites of Quercy, bridges over the gap between the 

 civets and dogs. Hyaenas are in like manner related to civets, Icty- 

 tkerium being a modified civet with four digits like hyaena, and it pro- 

 duced similar coprolites ; while Hycenictis is a modified hyaena, closely 

 approaching Ictytherium. The martens of the Miocene period approach 

 the civets, but not so closely as to break down the distinction between 

 the two groups. 



The oldest Lemur is Ccenopithecus, from the Eocene. Several 

 lemurs from the Eocene of Quercy show affinities with the ungulata 

 which suggest a common origin for lemurs and several Eocene pachy- 

 derms. So marked are these characters, that the lemurine genus 

 Adapts has sometimes been arranged with the pachyderms, while the 

 lemur Aphelotherium was formerly placed near to that group. 



The earliest Apes present affinities with pachyderms, which are 

 marked in the genus Ceboclicerus, from the lignites from Debruge. 

 Hyracotherium has some ape-like characters. The teeth of Oreopithecus, 

 from the Miocene of Italy, show resemblances to the pachyderm Clion- 

 rdpotamus. True apes from the Middle Miocene include Semnopithec.us, 

 from the Siwalik Hills and Montpellier. Mesopithecus t from Pikermi,, 



