392 THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



fauna has been treated as of Upper Pliocene age by some writers (Boule ; 

 but since in the remarkably rich deposits of the Forest Bed of Norfolk, 

 England, it succeeds a molluscan fauna of arctic affinity, there is little doubt 

 that we are witnessing the mammalian life of the first temperate interglacial 

 period. The chief localities in which this fauna occurs are the following: 



Forest Bed of Cromer, Norfolk, England (Fig. 176, 1), typical of 



the northern life 

 Sables de St. Prest (Eure-et-Loir), France, (2) typical of the cen- 

 tral life 

 Malbattu (Puy-de-D6me), France, (3) typical of the central life 

 Peyrolles (Bouches-du-Rhone), France, (4) tj^pical of the central life 

 SoLHiLAC, near Puy, southern France, (5) typical of the central life 

 Durfort (Gard), southern France, (6) typical of the central life 

 Val d'Arno (upper deposits), northern Italy, (8) typical of the 

 southern life 



While many Pliocene animals have disappeared, the fauna still includes 

 a number of forms surviving from the Pliocene, such as the saber-tooth cats 

 (Machwrodus), the roe deer (Capreolus), the polycladine deer (C sedgwicki), 

 the more primitive dicerorhine rhinoceroses {D. etruscus), the horses (Equus), 

 and especially the southern mammoths (E. meridionalis) , and hippopotami. 

 It is noteworthy that the saber-tooth cats and the polycladine deer do not 

 reappear in the later Pleistocene formations of Europe, although the saber- 

 tooths survive to a much later period both in Asia and in North America. 

 No traces of the larger true, or leonine, cats (Felis leo spelcea) are recorded 

 at this stage. 



Among the new arrivals are the earliest and very numerous members of 

 the giant fallow deer race, which terminate in the Upper Pleistocene in the 

 giant deer Megaceros. The bison (Bison) certainly makes its first appear- 

 ance in Europe, and according to some authors the true cattle (Bos) also 

 appear at this stage. It is also important to note here the presence of a form 

 (Caprovis) intermediate between the goat and the sheep, as the name indi- 

 cates, most nearly resembling the mouflon of Sardinia. Among the rodents 

 the large beaver (Trogontherium) succeeds the smaller species, first observed 

 in the PHocene of the Red Crag. South of the Alps the earliest of the 

 straight-tusked elephants (E. antiquus) occurs. A giant hippopotamus (H. 

 major) is certainly recorded, both south of the Alps and to the north in Great 

 Britain. The greatest stranger among the new arrivals is the musk-ox 

 (Ovibos), attributed by Dawkins^ to the Forest Bed deposits. 



Geologic proofs of the first .glacial advance. — James Geikie ^ (p. 335) 



' Cf., however, Boule, 1890, p. 945. 



2 Dawkins, W. Boyd, On the Alleged Existence of Ovibos nioschatus in the Forest-bed, and 

 on its Range in Space and Time. Quart. Jour. Gcol. Soc. London, 1883, pp. 576-579. 



■* Geikie, J., The Great Ice Age and Itj Relation to the Antiquity of Man, 3d ed., Lon- 

 don, 1894. 



