CHAPTER III. 



THE NEOG^IC REALM. 



Extent and Characters Mammaliferous Deposits Monkeys Bats Insecti- 

 vora Carnivores Ungulates Horses Litopterna Astrapotheria 

 Toxodonts Pyrotheria Proboscideans Rodents Edentates Arma- 

 dillos and Glyptodonts Sloths Anteaters- Ground-sloths Marsupials 

 Cetaceans Early Distinction of the Neogaeic Fauna Early Separation 

 of N. and S. America Incursion of Northern Mammals Distinctness of 

 the existing Fauna Origin of the Santa Cruz Fauna Antarctica and the 

 South American element in the Ethiopean Fauna Conclusion Sub- 

 regions. 



THE second primary zoological division of the globe may be 

 known as Neogsea 1 , or the Neogseic realm. It 

 characters"** includes only the Neotropical region. Comprising 

 not only the whole of South and Central America, 

 as well as the West Indian Islands, this area also embraces the 

 lowlands lying on either side of the Mexican plateau the so- 

 called tierras calientes thus running up in a fork-like manner to 

 the lower extremity of North America. While, therefore, the 

 greater part of this vast area is sharply delineated by its coast- 

 boundary, to the north it has a kind of No-man's-land connecting 

 it with the Sonoran region of Arctogaea, and, as will be shown 

 later, through this transitional area there has been a certain 

 amount of intermixture of the proper faunas of the Neotropical 

 and Sonoran regions. Neogaea, as a whole, may be characterised 

 as a country of extensive tropical forests or open grassy plains ; 

 deserts occupying only a few scattered areas in the upper Argen- 

 tine (Tucuman, etc.), and certain parts of the coasts of Chili 



1 This term was originally proposed by Dr Sclater to include the whole of 

 the New World, but has been used by an anonymous writer (Appendix, No. 4) 

 in the present sense. Dr Sclater 's term Dendroggea (Appendix, No. 27, 

 p. 214) is open to considerable objection, as the greater part of Argentina is 

 woodless. 



