OLTGOCENE OF EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA, AND NORTH AMERICA 197 



Prevailing Mammals 



Suillines 



Csenotheres 



Cervuline Deer (hornless) 



Giant Anthracotheres 



Acerathores 



Diceratheres 



Tapirs 



Chalicotheres 



Opossums 



Amphicyonids 



Civets 



Castorids (Steneofiber) 



absence of the true rabbits and hares (Leporidae), which at this time 

 were abundant in America. 



The carnivores have undergone great 

 changes since the Lower Ohgocene. The 

 civet-like dog Cynodictis has disappeared. 

 The canids are now represented by two more 

 modern genera (Amphicynodon, Cephalognle). 

 The largest dog-like forms are the amphicyons, 

 now equaling the wolf or hunting dog in size, 

 but not in speed ; the typical members of this 

 race were heavier and more thickset than the 

 dogs, but more slender than the bears, with 

 clumsy legs and a long tail. Of the smaller 

 Carnivora, the mustelid family is represented 

 by Plesictis, a small, long-bodied carnivore of 

 the size of a marten, as well as by the otters. 

 The mustelines are also represented by Pro- 

 OBlurus. Still more striking is the presence of the fierce viverrid carnivores 

 (Am.phictis, Herpestes) of the modern civet and mongoose types. Ungu- 

 lates were numerous, 

 including the tapirs as 

 well as rhinoceroses and 

 chalicotheres. The 

 horses are still absent. 

 The rhinoceroses now 

 embrace the dicera- 

 theres and the larger 

 aceratheres (A. leman- 

 ense). The chalico- 

 theres have now at- 

 tained a larger size 

 ( Macrotheriu in ) . Also 

 frequenting the vast 

 swamps surrounding 

 the lake were the horn- 

 less cervuline deer (Dremotherium and A mphitragulus) ; it is noteworthy 

 that this is the last record of this hornless race in Europe. The little 

 csenotheres, the last survivors of the anoplothere family, lived in large 

 herds around the lake, and are found in great abundance. The suillines 

 are represented by the aberrant pigs {Palceochoerus) . 



At Pyrimont ^ we obtain an imperfect picture of the animal life of the 

 swampy Rhone valley of Savoy toward the close of the Oligocene period. 



1 Dopprot and Douxanii, Los Vert6br6s Oligocfenes dc Pyrimont-Challonges (Savoie). 

 Mem. Soc. Paleont. Suisse, Geneva, Vol. XXIX, 1902, pp. 84-87. 



Fig. 87. — Ancestral saber-tooth tigers common to the 

 New and Old Worlds. Skeleton of the Middle Oligocene 

 carnivore Hoplophoneus primwvus of South Dakota, a fore- 

 runner of the great saber-tooth tiger of the Pleistocene. In 

 the American Museum of Natural History. 



