DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALS IN TIME. 



567 



of Europe, but six species are known from Miocene strata in 

 India. In the Pliocene period, Europe possessed its Elephants 

 (viz., E. priscus and E. meridionalis) - } but the best known of 



Fig. 219. Skeleton of Mastodon. 



the extinct Elephants, as well as the most modern, is the 

 Mammoth (E. primigenius, fig. 220). The Mammoth enjoyed 



Fig. 220. Skeleton of the Mammoth (Elefihas prim^gen^^ts). 



a very extended geographical distribution, remains of it occur- 

 ring in Britain, continental Europe, Siberia, and throughout a 

 large portion of North America. There can also be no ques- 

 tion but that the Mammoth existed in the earlier portion of 

 the human period. 



Order IX. Carnivora. If the little Microlestes of the Upper 

 Trias be Marsupial, as is most probably the case, then the 

 order Carnivora is comparatively modern, the earliest un- 

 doubted remains having been found in the Eocene Rocks. 

 The tribe of the Felida is represented in the Miocene period 

 by the large Machairodus, with sabre-shaped upper canines. 



