INTRODUCTION 5 



The still richer Lower Oligocene and Upper Eocene mammals of the phos- 

 phorites near Quercy, discovered in 1865 and noticed by various authors, 

 were monographed by Filhol in 1877/ 



The important Lower Oligocene mammals of Ronzon, discovered by 

 Auguste Aymard, first reported in 185(3, were fully and ably monographed 

 by Filhol in 1881. The Upper Oligocene of the center of France {VAllier, 

 Puy-de-D6me, H aide-Loire), successively described by Charles Deperet, 

 Antoine Jacques Louis Jourdan (1788-1848), Gervais (1851), Nicolas 

 Auguste Pomel (1853), was also finally monographed by Filhol in 1880. 



It remained for Victor Lemoine (1837-1897) to describe the Basal Eocene 

 mammalian fauna from Cernay near Rheims, discovered in 1873, and 

 continuously explored up to the present time. 



In the meantime in Germany the works of Georg August Goldfuss 

 (1782-1848), Georg Friedrich von Jager (1785-18G6), and Christoph Gott- 

 fried Giebel (1820-1881, Fauna der Vonvelt, 1846, 1847) were followed 

 by the more exhaustive publications of Johann Jakob Kaup (1803-1873), 

 which covered the Upper Miocene mammals of the Mainz Basin (Eppels- 

 heim near Worms). The gifted Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer 

 (1801-1869) also described Hipparion and other mammals from Eppels- 

 heim (1832). To Johann Andreas Wagner (1797-1861) we owe our first 

 knowledge of the Upper Miocene fauna (1848-1857) of Pikermi, a won- 

 derfully rich deposit which was finally monographed (1862) by Albert 

 Gaudry (1827-1908). The Middle Miocene mammals of Wiirttemberg 

 were described (1870-1885) by Friedrich August Quenstedt (1809-1889) 

 and Oscar Friedrich van Fraas (1824-1897). 



The work of William Buckland (1784-1856) and John Phillipps (1800- 

 1874) on the sparse Tertiary formations of Great Britain was followed by 

 that of Richard Owen (1804-1892), which was finally summarized in his 

 '*A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds" (1846), and ''Con- 

 tributions to the History of British Fossil Mammals" (1848), treating 

 especially of the Upper Eocene of the Isle of Wight. 



Darwin's Influence 



A review of the two classic works ^ of Darwin (Charles Robert, 1809- 

 1882), of 1839 and 1859, proves that he was the founder of modern palae- 

 ontology. He applied to the living world the earth-forming principles 

 of Hutton which had been grandly developed and expressed by Charles 

 Lyell. The ideas of the descent of mammals and other applications of 

 this law of similarity between the past and present history 



' Filhol, Recherches sur les Phosphorites du Quercy. Paris, 1877. 



^ Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle 

 between the years 1826 and 18.36, Describing their Examination of the Southern Shores of 

 South America and the Beagle's Circumnavigation of the Globe, published in 1839. On 

 the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races 

 in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859. 



