TERTIARY MAMMAL HORIZONS. . 31 



f Maximum marine siibapennine inva- ~| 



I sion, long arms of the sea up the Po and Mammalian fauna 



p , , I Rhone valleys. Mediterranean ex- | unknown, except that 



I tends to the East. (Argiles bleues of Casino at the base 

 I subapennines). Chiefly marine de- | of this stage. 

 I posits. J 



Renewed advance of the sea, brack- ~| 

 ish and freshwater conditions. Medi- 

 I. Messinien. ' terranean bounded by Sardinia on the 

 east ; great Caspian seas and kkes be- 

 .yond. 



Fauna of Pikermi 

 and Eppehheim. 



Climate. — Owing to the warm Mediterranean invasion the cli- 

 mate was mild. Deperet, our chief authority ('93, p. 529), 

 shows that there was no decided change of flora ; nevertheless 

 the period was marked by the very gradual advance of northern 

 forest types and by the recession of the more delicate southern 

 types, the palms for example being driven 10 degrees further 

 south. The decisive lowering of temperature came during the 

 early Pleistocene period. 



1. Messinien, Lower Pliocene 



During the first or Messinien stage the fauna of the lake- 

 bound /Egean region (Pikermi), altogether similar to that of 

 Southern France (Mt. Leberon), indicates abundant if not highly 

 watered vegetation and extensive grazing pasturages of central 

 African type. This fauna was widely distributed and highly dis- 

 tinctive ; the parallels are numerous and well known. 



Orient. Pikermi — typical southern fauna. 



Samos (-'Egean Sea), Maragha (Persia). 

 France. jMt. Leberon (Vaucluse). 



Molasse d^ eati dotice superieure die Phone (higher than beds of same 



name in Switzerland). 

 Cucuj-on (Couches saumatres). Pity Cotirny (Cantal). 

 Austro- Belvedere Schotter, fluviatile gravels (Ponlique, Deperet, '92. p. 



Hungar)'. 156, Congeria Beds, Vienna Basin). 



Spain. C^nciid (Ebre Valley, near Madrid, a very extensive lacustrine for- 



mation), '' Alcoi. 

 Germany. Eppelsheiiii gravels (4-7 metres), near Darmstadt. 



Upper Dinolhtriuin sands, of Augsburg, Neuburg, Delsberg. 



Distinctive types of this stage are Plioliylobates (Eppelsheim), 

 Hystrix (Pikermi), Plioliyrax (Samos) Hippario)i gracilc. Accra- 



