ANIMALS OF THE PAST 335 



gulls, pelicans, rails, ducks, plovers, grouse, parrots and 

 eagles. The insects were represented by such specialized 

 forms as gall-flies, saw-flies, bees, stag beetles, and 

 butterflies. 



Miocene Period. The landscape now had a more modern 

 aspect. Among the plants were irises, pinks, poppies, 

 violets, roses, plums, and pineapples. Various types of 

 primitive monkeys were living in the trees. Porcupines, 

 beavers, martens, skunks, bears, antlered deer, seals and 

 other modern types lived with archaic forms like the horn- 

 less rhinoceri, and three-toed horses. In South America 

 there were great ground sloths, some as much as twenty feet 

 long, armadillos, and strange hoofed animals. A number 

 of new types of birds appeared during Miocene times and 

 other vertebrates were also changing. Snakes were now 

 represented by venomous species. 



Pliocene Period. In this period many of the older 

 mammalian types were still in existence. There were 

 long-jawed elephants; horses in which the outside toes, 

 though off the ground, were still quite large, sabre-tooth 

 tigers, and other archaic creatures. But such old-fashioned 

 animals were outnumbered by the modern types and old 

 strains continued to die out. At the end of the period there 

 were a number of kinds of true apes scrambling about in 

 the trees; the horses were mostly " one-toed ;" and there 

 were many new animals, such as goats, giraffes, and even 

 apes somewhat closely related to man. 



The Tertiary Age is noteworthy for the increase of the 

 warm-blooded animals, particularly the mammals. Though 

 many lines of amphibians and reptiles underwent great 

 specializations, these groups in general decreased, both in 

 numbers and in variety. The birds and mammals, .on 

 the contrary, showed specialization along many and various 

 lines, increased greatly in numbers, and filled many of the 

 habitats occupied during the later Mesozoic times by their 

 cold-blooded predecessors. At the close of the Pliocene, 



