302 



ANIMAL LIFE 



America. Some of these (anthropoid apes) have much 

 in common with man, and a primitive man derived from 

 these has been imagined by Haeckel and others. No 

 creature of this character is yet known, but that it may 

 have once existed is not impossible. To this region be- 

 long the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus, 

 as well as the lion, tiger, leopard, giraffe, the wild asses, 

 and horses of various species, besides a large number of 

 ruminant animals not found in other parts of the world. 

 It is, in fact, in its lower mammals and reptiles that its 



most striking dis- 

 tinctive characters 

 are found. In its 

 fish fauna it has 

 very much in com- 

 mon with South 

 America. 



The Lemurian 

 realm comprises 

 Madagascar alone. 

 It is an isolated di- 

 vision of the Indo- 

 African realm, but 

 the presence of 

 many species of 

 lemur and an un- 

 specialized or 

 primitive type of 

 lemur is held to 

 justify its recogni- 

 tion as a distinct 



realm. In most other groups of animals the fauna of Mada- 

 gascar is essentially that of neighboring parts of Africa. 



The Patagonian realm includes the south temperate 

 zone of South America. It has much in common with the 

 neotropical realm from which its fauna is mainly derived, 



FIG. 179. A lemur (Lemur varius). 



