124 DISTRIBUTION OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. [part ii. 



and hyaenas, tapirs, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephants, giraffes, 

 and antelopes, such as now characterise the tropics of Africa 

 and Asia. Along with these we meet with less familiar types, 

 showing relations with the Centetidae of Madagascar, the 

 Tupaiidaa of the Malay Islands, the Cajpromys, of the West Indies, 

 and the Echimys of South America. And besides all these 

 living types we have a host of extinct forms, — ten or twelve 

 genera allied to swine ; nine genera of tapir-like animals ; four 

 of horses ; nine of wolves ; with many distinct forms of the 

 Long-extinct families of Anoplotheridae, Xiphodontidae, and the 

 edentate Macrotheridae. It is almost certain that during the 

 Miocene period Europe was not only far richer than it is now 

 in the higher forms of life, but not improbably richer than any 

 part of the globe now is, not excepting tropical Africa and 

 tropical Asia. 



Eocene Period. 



The deposits of Eocene age are less numerous, and spread 

 over a far more limited area, than those of the Miocene period, 

 and only restricted portions of them furnish any remains of 

 land animals. Our knowledge of the Eocene mammalian fauna 

 is therefore very imperfect and will not occupy us long, as 

 most of the new types it furnishes are of more interest to the 

 zoologist than to the student of distribution. Some of the 

 Eocene mammalia of Europe are, however, of interest in com- 

 parison with those of North America of the same age ; while 

 others show that ancestral types of groups now confined to 

 Australia or to South America, then inhabited Europe. 



Primates.— The only undoubted Eocene examples of this 

 order, are the Ccenojnthecus lemuroides from the Jura, which has 

 points of resemblance to the South American marmosets and 

 howlers, and also to the Lemuridae ; and a cranium recently dis- 

 covered in the Department of Lot (S.W. France), undoubtedly 

 belono-ino- to the Lemuridae, and which most resembles that of 

 the West African " Potto " (Pcrodidicus). This discovery has 

 led to another for it is now believed that remains formerly 



