THE PEEPAEATION OF THE EARTH FOR MAn's ABODE. 97 



been obtained of a number of species of birds which inchide 

 forma aUied to our living peHcan, flamingo, quail, and hawk. 

 And in these beds is the first appearance of the higher 

 orders of Mammalia, but the earlier species, although 

 carnivores, have affinities with the marsupials, and then 

 occurs the bones of the Hyracothcrixim, a small pig-like 

 animal with cauine teeth. 



The Upper Eocene beds, now called Oligocene, both of 

 the Paris Basin and the Isle of Wight, have given a rich 

 assemblage of mammalian bones. Baron Cuvier in France 

 tmd Professor Owen in England worked at these bones 

 with such success that they both arrived at the same 

 conclusions, Avhich established their accuracy. Thus 

 Anoplotherium, Pahvotherinm, Xiphodoit, and other genera 

 of the order Ungulata were added to the fossil fauna of 

 France and England. The Anchitlierium was intermediate 

 in structure between the tapir-like species just named and 

 the horse. It was as large as a small pony, but had three 

 toes. With these, the earliest allied form to monkeys, the 

 'Cosnopithecus. appears, and hornless deer and antelopes seem 

 to have been numerous in the Kastern Hemisphere. 



In Miocene times, what is now Great Britain was probably 

 a land area and so contains no deposits of this age. But 

 "Central Europe Avas then under water that extended along 

 the line of the Alps, not yet raised to their great elevation, 

 and the Pyrenees, and during the IMiocene epoch marine 

 gradually changed to brackish water conditions in this 

 central sea. The result has been the accumulation of 

 enormous deposits in Southern Europe and the basin of 

 the Mediterranean, and the entombment of a. magnificent 

 assemblage of organic remains that presents us with a 

 very vivid picture of at least the flora, if not of the fauna, 

 of Miocene lands. 



The fauna is, however, sufiiciently illustrated to show th^t 

 it difi"ered considerably from that of the Oligocene epoch. 

 We now find the earliest elephantine animals in the great 

 mastodons, and with these there was an enormous ant-eater, 

 the Macrotherinm ; an early pig, the By other iwn ; a sabre- 

 toothed tiger, the Machairodus ; and a bear with affinities 

 with the hyasna, the Hyccnarctns. According to Gaudry, 

 the first anthropoid ape, the Dryopithecus, appears ; but 

 Owen thought it was more allied to the gibbons. In 

 America, deposits of Miocene age have given the large 

 £rontothermm, which is distinct from any existing family, 



H 



