400 THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



The saber-tooth tigers (M(ichcerodus) now disappear in Europe and their 

 place in the balance of nature is taken by giant true leonid felines {Felis 

 spelcea); the southern mammoth (E. meridionalis) is replaced by a more 

 progressive stage {E. trogontherii) , which is regarded l)y Pohlig as its direct 

 successor; the polycladine deer of Upper Pliocene and Norfolk Forest Bed 

 times have vanished, neither are there traces of the axis deer. True cattle 

 {Bos primigenius) now certainly appear as well as the Bison. The moose 

 (Alces latifrons), the giant fallow deer {Megaceros helgrandi), and the roe 



Fig. 177. — The giant fallow deer, Megacero.s, nf the Hritish riristdceiic, fidin a .-skeleton 

 found in the Irish peat bogs. After original by Charles R. Knight in the American Museum 

 of Natural History. 



deer (Copreolus) are all present. The true stag (Cervus elaphus) is again 

 recorded, but somewhat doubtfully. Another animal of somewhat doubtful 

 record but of very great interest is the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus); this 

 animal, if present, is rare, because this is distinctively the pre-reindeer 

 period. Among other arctic forms the musk ox (0. moschatus) is conspicu- 

 ous by its absence. As evidence of milder temperatures, the hippopotamus 

 again appears in central Europe and in Great Britain. Rhinoceroses are 

 very abundant, but still represent exclusively the broad-nosed types, the 

 dicerorhine, or Sumatran phylum (Z). merch'i, or D. megarhinus). The 

 brachyodont Etruscan rhinoceros (D. etruscus) is doubtfully recorded. 



The carnivores of the period include, beside the cave lion (Felis spelcea), 

 the lynx (Felis lynx), the browii bear (Ursus arctos), and the badger (Meles). 



