Animals Before Man 



But if the great titanotheres had passed 

 away an abundance of other animals remained, 

 and as grasses spread over the land herbivores 

 came into being, fitted to browse upon them, 

 and active carnivores arose to prey upon the 

 helpless chewers of the cud. 



The primitive flesh-eaters, the creodonts, 

 were still represented, and true carnivores ap- 

 peared in the shape of small dogs and the fore- 

 runners of the large saber-toothed tigers. Early 

 members of the camel family were there, to- 

 gether with rhinoceroses and numerous smaller 

 beasts. The most abundant mammals of the 

 time were the oreodouts, animals that combined 

 some of the characters of the hog, deer, and 

 camel. This combination does not make so 

 strange-looking a creature as might be sup- 

 posed, since these characters were found in the 

 teeth and skeleton. The general appearance of 

 the oreodonts must have been something like 

 that of a small, heavily built doe, with, how- 

 ever, a long tail, and 4 toes to each foot. The 

 commonest species of oreodon was about the 

 size of a sheep; the smallest was about the 



240 



