THE EOCENE OF EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA 



171 



or the summit of the Eocene. As described by Schuchert and Lucas/ 

 the beds vary in thickness from five to ten feet, but are of great geographic 

 extent, since bones are recorded from Florida to Arkansas. In Choctaw 

 County, Alabama, the strata are buff or whitish marl with some green 

 glauconitic sand. They thus l)elong to an old soft scabottom, in which 

 the bones are either isolated, or more or less of a skeleton may be found 

 in position and undisturbed. 



The great marine mammal known as Zeuglodon undoubtedly lived in 

 large numbers in the ancient Gulf of Mexico, as well as in the seas of south- 

 ern Europe and northern Africa. Its proportions were not like those of 



Fig. 70. — The primitive whale Zeuglodon cetoides from the Eocene of Alabama. Drawa 

 by Charles R. Knight under the direction of F. A. Lucas. Original in the American Museum 

 of Natural History. 



the existing whales, because the diameter was not more than six or eight 

 feet through the thickest part of the body, while the length reached fifty 

 or even seventy feet, about forty feet of which constituted the long and 

 freely movable tail. This tail, in the opinion of Lucas,- ended in a fluke, 

 which would indicate that the mammal was a constant diver. The head 

 was relatively small, but the jaws were provided with great grasping and 

 cutting teeth. There was a pair of short fore paddles just behind the 

 head, but the hind limbs were vestigial and retained within the skin. The 

 shoulder blades were like those of a whale, but the extremely elongate 



' Lucas, F. A., The Pelvic Girdle of Zeuglodon, Ba.silosaunis Cetoides (Owen), with Notes 

 on Other Portions of the Skeleton. Proc. U.S. jVa<. Mus., Vol. XXIII, pp. 327-331, 1900. 

 ^ Lucas, Animals of the Past. New York, 1901. 



