OLIGOCENE OF EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA, AND NORTH AMERICA 201 



Africa, Asia, and South America, also to tlie life of Eocene-Oligocene 

 Europe. This assemblage, however, presents more contrasts than resem- 

 blances to the mammalian life which existed in Lower Oligocene times 

 on the north shores of 

 the Mediterranean, as 

 displayed in the phos- 

 phorites of Quercy. 



The resemblances 

 consist in the presence 

 of small myomorph 

 rodents (Phiomys, 

 Metaphiomys),^ and a 

 great variety of car- 

 nivorous creodonts be- 

 longing exclusively to 

 the family Hysenodon- 

 tidae, including the 

 three principal genera 

 Hywnodon, Pterodon, 

 Apterodon, also found 

 in France. Among the 

 even-toed ungulates, 

 or artiodactyls, we find 

 in northern Africa, as 

 in Europe, several 

 ancodonts or hyopo- 

 tamids (Ancodus, 

 Brachyodus) ; the aber- 

 rant Rhagatherium of 

 North Africa is also 

 found in Switzerland ; 

 there are large mam- 

 mals (Geniohyus) re- 

 sembling the European 

 suillines in their denti- 

 tion, and very diminutive forms (Apidium) resembling remotely Acotherulum 

 and Cebochoenis of France. 



The very striking point of contrast with the neighboring peninsula 

 of Europe is the absence of perissodactyls, of tapirs, horses, and rhinoce- 

 roses of all kinds. Neither are there any higher types of selenodont 

 artiodactyls such as we might consider as ancestral forms of the great 

 ruminant fauna of modern Africa. This would appear to strengthen the 



' Osborn, H. F., New Fossil Mammals from the Fayftm Oligocene, Egypt. Bull. Amer. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXIV, Art. xvi, Mar. 25, 1908, pp. 205-272. 



Fig. 90. — The al)eriaiit- rhinoccros-liki' ungulate Arsino'i- 

 therium attacked by the carnivorous creodont Pterodon. 

 (Oligocene of the Fayum, Egypt.) After original by Charles 

 R. Knight in the American Museum of Natural History. 



