New Order of Gigantic Fossils. 



13 



evident that the living corkscrev^ had fastened upon the sub- 

 merged skeleton of a mammal about the size of a tapir or 

 small rhinoceros, and spreading out and growing over it had 

 bound in place vertebrae, ribs and limb bones, almost inclos- 

 ing them. 



From this, then, it 

 may be reasonable to 

 suspect that the rodent 

 already described found 

 entirely within the walls 

 of the " underground 

 stem " of a fossil cork- 

 screw, had not bur- 

 rowed there, but rather 

 that its skeleton, sub- 

 merged in m i o c e n e 

 waters, became a suitable anchorage for the living, growing 

 Daimonelix, which eventually enveloped it. 



While the organic nature of these corkscrews cannot be 

 backed as yet with stronger proof than the evidence from 

 certain plant-cells already mentioned, and that of certain 

 scattered rod-like bodies, possibly spicules, yet no one who 

 has ever seen the characteristic intricate network of minute 

 silicious tubes will grant that they could ever have been the 

 burrow of an animal (Plate III., Fig. 21). 



This incomplete, strictly provisional classification is in- 

 tended to be suggestive rather than final. 



Fig. 9. • — " Underground stem " of Daimonelix, 

 showing a skeleton of a rodent partly worked 

 out. 



Order. 



Family. 



r 



Daimonelicidae \ 



I 



Genus. 



Daimonelix 



Species. 

 circumaxilis 

 bispiralis 

 anaxilis 

 robusta 

 carinata 



