320 THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



Upper Pliocene of Africa. The fluviatile otters (Lutra) and bea- 

 Partial List vers (Castor) are closely allied to existing forms. 



Roe deer The small fauna includes voles, picas, hares, por- 



Axis deer cupines, also species approaching recent types. 



Red deer (Cervus) Among the perissodactyls, the tapirs (T. arver- 



Polycladine deer nensis) appear in Europe for the last time; the 



MachserodontS Pliocene tapirs resemble the existing Indian tapirs 



(7". indicus) very closely. ^ The 'Etruscan rhinoc- 

 eros ' is a long-limbed, long-headed animal, distinguished from its Lower 

 Pliocene ancestor {D. leptorhinus) by a well-developed bony septum 

 which furnishes support for the great nasal horn ; it is structurally 

 related to the D. platyrhinus of the Siwaliks of India, as well as to the 

 smaller and much more primitive living species D. sumatrensis of 

 Sumatra. This animal survives in the Lower Pleistocene Forest 

 Bed, together with several other members of this fauna. The Asiatic 

 and African element is now less conspicuous than in the older Pliocene 

 fauna. 



In his comments on the mammalian fauna of the Val d'Arno, Forsyth 

 Major 2 speaks of the spreading of this fauna eastward into India. Of the 

 types now resident in southeastern Asia the tapir, the axis deer, and the 

 rhinoceros may be mentioned. 



The rich fauna of the Val d'Arno is even more varied and typical than 

 that of Perrier. It is splendidly represented in the Museum of Florence. 

 The macaque which occurs here (M. florentinus) is the last of the European 

 macaques. The disappearance of the monkeys from Europe at the close of 

 the Pliocene is a very significant fact; it may be remembered that in the 

 Upper Miocene they ranged as far north as Eppelsheim ; in the Lower Plio- 

 cene they were restricted to the forests of the south of France; in the Upper 

 Pliocene to those of Italy; their gradual southern retreat is probably due 

 to a slowly progressive lowering of temperature.^ 



The elephant of this period, the typical E. meridionalis of Nesti, popu- 

 larly known as the 'southern elephant,' is a magnificent animal with mod- 

 erately long-crowned or hypsodont molar teeth composed of as many as 

 fourteen rows of closely compressed transverse enamel plates. It is either 

 of Asiatic or African origin. The molars are broad, the enamel thick 

 and smooth. The tusks are of gigantic proportions. 



A remarkable feature of the contemporary mastodon (M. arvernensis) 

 is the extraordinarily long and very slightly outcurved tusks.* The wild 



' Kittl, E., Fossile Tapirreste von Biederniannsdorf. Annal. k.k. naturhist. Hofinus., 

 Vienna, 1896, Notizen, pp. 57-58. 



^ Forsyth Major, C. J., On the Mammalian Fauna of the Val d'Arno. Quart. Jour. Geol. 

 Soc. London, Vol. XLI, June 25, 1884, p. .3. 



' Boyd Dawkins, W., The Classification of the Tertiary by Means of the Mammalia. 

 Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, Vol. XXXVI, London, 1880, p. 394. 



* Capellini, Mastodonti del Museo Geologico di Bologna, 1907. 



