Animals Before Man 



out of existence. Most important of all events 

 that took place in the Triassic period was the 

 advent of mammals, and while these were no 

 larger than rats, and seem to have had many 

 features in common with their anomodont 

 associates, they marked the coming of the 

 highest of all groups of animals. No equal 

 period of time, before nor since, has witnessed 

 such a complete revolution in the life of the 

 globe, although it is possible that the moun- 

 tain-making Cretaceous may have terminated 

 the career of more species. 



The vegetation, too, was changing ; those 

 giant, overgrown mosses, sigillaria and lepido- 

 deudron, which had waned with the Carbo- 

 niferous, practically disappeared with the Per- 

 mian,* while, as these declined, ferns and 

 cycads increased, and conifers appeared in num- 

 bers. The world had changed, our continent 

 had increased in size, and the close of the Trias 

 looked upon a new landscape, peopled by a 

 new race of beings. 



* Sigillaria possibly endured into the Trias, but lepidoden- 

 dron is scantily represented even in the Permian. 



142 



