316 THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



Persian lynx, by the servals (Felis christoli) allied to the recent African 

 forms, by the gazelles {G. deperdita) of north African type, slightly 

 smaller than the Dorcas gazelle. The oryx {Palceoryx cordieri) is one of 

 the antelopes of a type now abundantly represented in Africa, perhaps 

 ancestral to the existing oryx. The wild cat {Felis catus aff. maniculala) is 

 regarded by Deperet as similar to or identical with the caff re cat of northern 

 Africa, Two of the rodent types (Trilophomys, Ruscinonnjs) are allied to 

 the existing crested rats and to the gundis of northern Africa. 



The presence of gallinaceous birds (Gallus) of a form (Palceocryptonyx) 

 allied to the wood quail of Malaysia, of giant land tortoises (Testudo), 

 of great river turtles (Trionyx), and finally of fish belonging to the Africo- 

 Asiatic group of silurids further accentuates the southern or Ethiopian and 

 Oriental element. 



In addition to this essentially southern element there is in the ancient 

 Pliocene fauna a large temperate and north temperate element which allies 

 it with the recent animal life of Europe and of central Asia. The repre- 

 sentatives of this element^ are, among mammals, the fox (Vulpes), the 

 wild cat {F. catus), the mole (Talpa), the shrew (Crocidura), the flying 

 squirrel (Sciuropterus) , the beaver (Castor), and the rat (Mus). There 

 are hamsters (Cricetus), picas (Lagomys), boars (Sus), roe deer (Capreolus), 

 hares (Lepus), porcupines (Hystrix), otters (Lutra); among birds, the 

 goose (Anser), the crow (Corvus), and the thrush (Turdus). It is note- 

 worthy that the fox, mentioned above, is with the exception of the canids, 

 recorded in the Middle Miocene of ffiningen, the first true member of the 

 canids to be recorded in Europe, but the wolf also soon appears. At 

 Montpellier (5) in southern France (Herault) we find, in addition to many 

 of the animals listed above, certain mammals (e.g. Hycenardos, Senmopi- 

 tkecus, Felis christoli, Lutra affinis) especially recorded. The monkey which 

 occurs here (Semnopithecus monspessulanus) is, as above noted, scarcely 

 distinguishable from the langurs of southern Asia. These animals have a 

 shorter muzzle than the macaques, which are represented in the Lower 

 Pliocene by the genus Dolichopithecus of Roussillon. 



The deer of the period are small forms resembling the existing roe deer, 

 or Capreolus, an animal usually provided with only three tines on its 

 antlers; the species C. australis persists throughout the Pliocene. Thus 

 the Montpellier mammals in general include a number of survivors (e.g., 

 Semnopithecus, Palceoryx) of Lower Pliocene forms of Casino, and a some- 

 what larger number of species which persist into the Upper Pliocene of the 

 Val d'Arno. 



Underlying the typical Upper Pliocene fauna of Perrier has recently been 

 described the 'hipparion fauna' of Roccaneyra.^ Here occur especially an 

 hipparion of very large size, with slender limbs, a gazelle (G. julieni) iden- 



' Some of these animals arc found at Montpellier, but are not recorded at Roussillon. 

 ^ Stehlin, Une Faune a Hipparion a Perrier. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, Ser. 4, Vol. IV, 1904. 



