Il6 THE NEOG^EIC REALM. [CHAP. 



VIII. MARSUPIALIA (continued}. 



Dasyuridae. Santa Cruz. Now confined to 

 Notogaea, but apparently represented in the 

 Santa Cruz beds by * Prothylacinus and 

 * Amphiproviverra. 



* Microbiotheriidcz. Santa Cruz. 

 Incertce, Seats. 



* Borhyanidce. Santa Cruz. 



Although the addition of the names of all the peculiar genera, 

 both recent and extinct, would have rendered the distinctness of 

 the Neogaeic mammalian fauna still more pronounced, yet the 

 foregoing table as it stands is amply sufficient to show that 

 Neogaea is entitled to form one of the three primary zoological 

 realms of the world. Starting with the Santa Crucian epoch of 

 Patagonia and the somewhat older Patagonian stage, which form 

 the earliest date at which the history of the Tertiary land mammals 

 of Neogaea can be taken up, there is evidence that at least the 

 southern part of the area was populated by the following pecu- 

 liar fauna. Firstly, monkeys of a type quite different from those 

 of the Old World, but evidently allied to the existing Neogaeic 

 forms, were abundant; while rodents, belonging to the same 

 groups as those now inhabiting the continent, several of which 

 were nearly allied to existing African forms, and more remotely to 

 certain Oligocene European types, attained a great development. 

 Probably Insectivora with V-shaped molars were also present. 

 More peculiar are the extinct subordinal groups of ungulates 

 described above, which appear to have been allied to the ancestors 

 of the perissodactyles of the northern hemisphere, and may 

 possibly be remotely connected with the African hyraces. At the 

 same period flourished several families of edentates (a group 

 which in its restricted sense was originally peculiar to Neogaea), 

 such as armadillos, glyptodonts, and ground-sloths, most of the 

 members of which were of comparatively small size ; but of the 

 ancestry of this group nothing can be said with certainty. 

 Among the marsupials, although opossums appear to have been 

 wanting, there were several types seemingly allied to Notogaeic 

 forms, while others which may be included in the order were more 



