THE MIOCENE OF EUROPE, ASIA, AND NORTH AMERICA 273 



5. Dicerinae, the atclodine or African rhinoceroses, two-horned. 



6. Rhinocerotime, the typical or Indian rhinoceroses, single-horned. 



7. Elasmotheriinai, the elasmotheres (a possible side branch of II). 



II. MIDDLE MIOCENE LIFE OF ASIA 



The wonderful mammalian fauna of Asia still awaits stratigraphic 

 arrangement; that is, the geologic or time succession of the mammals is 

 still to be worked out. On this and on further exploration, especially of 

 the smaller forms of life, depends the question of the origin and history of 

 some of the most important Old World types. The earliest known mammals 

 at present discovered in Asia are of Miocene age, and partly of Oligocene 

 character compared with those of Europe, while the more recent are of 

 Pliocene and Pleistocene age. 



In India the main geologic distribution of the mammal beds, according 

 to Oldham,^ Blanford,-' and Geikie,^ is as follows: 



II. Siwalik Group, newer, or chiefly Pliocene. 

 I. Manchhar Group, Sind, older, or chiefly Miocene. 



The most striking feature of the Lower Manchhar mammals is their 

 correspondence with those of the 'older Miocene ' of western Europe, and 

 the most mysterious feature is the absence in this fauna of ancestors either 

 of the Upper Miocene life of Europe or of the Upper Miocene and Pliocene 

 life of Asia; that is, western India at this time does not furnish us, as we 

 should have anticipated, with the ancestry of the wonderful Upper Mio- 

 cene and Pliocene fauna, but only with a very limited portion of this ances- 

 try. This may be explained by the fact that this is chiefly a forest or 

 browsing fauna. 



Manchhar group. — In Sind (Fig. 136), resting on the marine Gaj of 

 undoubted Lower Miocene age, on the flanks of the Kirthar Range, is the 

 Manchhar series, 10,000 feet in thickness, composed of fluviatile, or flood- 

 plain clays, sandstones, and conglomerates. Of these the Lower Manchhar 

 beds are composed of ossiferous conglomerates, including bones and single 

 teeth, the specific determination of which is often unsatisfactory. The 

 Upper Manchhars are unfossiliferous. Since the Gaj beds are Lower Mio- 

 cene, the Lower Manchhars cannot be older than Middle Miocene. This 

 intermediate position is confirmed by the fact that they do not contain any 

 typical Upper Miocene mammals, with the possible exception of two species. 

 The Bugti beds in the southern portion of the Suleiman Range, consisting 

 also of clays and sandstones interstratified with conglomerates 5,000 feet 

 in thickness, have yielded near Dera Bugti a similar fauna. 



> Oldham. R. D., A Manual of the Geology of India. 8vo, Calcutta, 189.3. 

 ^ Blanford, W. T., Homotaxis, as Illustrated from Indian Formations. Rec. Geol. Sure. 

 India, Vol. XVIII, Pt. 1, 1885, p. .37. 



' Gcikie, A., Text-hook of Geology, 1893, pp. 1021, 1022. 

 T 



