112 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



rhinoceroses we now know are all inhabitants of tropical 

 climes. But the discovery of more or less complete 

 specimens makes it evident that the climate was not 

 particularly mild ; the animals were simply adapted to 

 it; instead of being naked like their modern relatives, 

 they were dressed for the climate in a woolly covering. 

 We think of the tiger as prowling through the jungles of 

 India, but he ranges so far north that in some localities 

 this beast preys upon reindeer, which are among the 

 most northern of large mammals, and there the tiger is 

 clad in fairly thick fur. 



When we come to coloring a reconstructed animal we 

 have absolutely no guide, unless w r e assume that the 

 larger a creature the more soberly will it be colored. 

 The great land animals of to-day, the elephant and 

 rhinoceros, to say nothing of the aquatic hippopotamus, 

 are very dully colored, and while this sombre coloration 

 is to-day a protection, rendering these animals less easily 

 seen by man than they otherwise would be, yet at the 

 time this color was developing man was not nor were 

 there enemies sufficiently formidable to menace the 

 race of elephantine creatures. 



For where mere size furnishes sufficient protection 

 one would hardly expect to find protective coloration as 

 well, unless indeed a creature preyed upon others, when 

 it might be advantageous to enable a predatory animal 

 to steal upon its prey. 



Color often exists (or is supposed to) as a sexual char- 

 acteristic, to render the male of a species attractive to, 

 or readily recognizable by, the female, but in the case of 

 large animals mere size is quite enough to render them 

 conspicuous, and possibly this may be one of the factors 

 in the dull coloration of large animals. 



Aids, or at least hints, to the coloration of extinct 

 animals are to be found in the coloration of the young of 



