Reviews—Prof. A. Gaudry—Aneestry of our Animals. 89 
ae) SER Mig as Ea VV io 
I—Tue AncEstry oF ouR ANIMALS. 
Les Ancirres DE Nos ANIMAUX DANS LES Temps Gf&OLOGIQUES. 
By Aupert Gaupry. 12mo. (Paris, 1888.) 
N this fascinating little volume of 296 pages, illustrated by a 
frontispiece and 48 woodcuts, of which several occupy an entire 
page, and are printed as plates, we are glad to welcome another 
of Prof. Gaudry’s valuable and interesting contributions to the 
history of Fossil Mammalia. 
The first chapter is a brief réswmé of some of the more important 
steps in the progress of Paleeontology, with a list of names of many 
famous workers in various branches. In the second we have an 
interesting discussion on the importance of the degree of evolu- 
tion of the contained fossil Vertebrates in regard to the determi- 
nation of the age of strata in different parts of the globe; in 
which is given a valuable table of the date of appearance of some 
of the more important groups of Vertebrates. Great weight is 
here attached by the author to the degree of specialization of the 
various genera of Selenodont Artiodactylia, as indicative of the 
relative age of the beds in which they occur: and illustrations of the 
doctrine of migration and colonization are given from the Mesozoic 
Mollusca. With the third chapter we enter on the proper subject of 
the volume—or the evolution of the Tertiary Mammalia; and here 
we find a large number of excellent illustrations of the chief types 
of dental and pedal structure, reproduced from the author’s larger 
work on the same subject. This subject in the two succeeding 
chapters is further specially illustrated by the history of the fossil 
Mammals of Pikermi in Attica, and of Mont Lebéron in Vaucluse, 
which have been rendered classic by the author’s earlier monographs ; 
and some very interesting suggestions are made as to the influence 
which the fossil bones of the “former area may have exerted on the 
mythologies and metamorphoses of the Greek and Roman classic 
wilters. 
The last two chapters are devoted more especially to the Palaeon- 
tology of the Paris Museum; the seventh containing a review of 
the works of the author’s predecessors i in the chair of Palaontolog gy. 
Excellent figures are given in the eighth chapter of some of the 
more important skeletons of Mammals ‘which adorn the Mammalian 
Gallery, among which we may especially notice Mastodon angustidens, 
Glyptodon typus, Palgotherium magnum, and Scelidotherium lepto- 
cephalum. 
We may conclude our brief notice of this volume, which we can 
heartily commend to all our readers —whether they be paleeontolo- 
gists or not—by some extracts from the end of the sixth chapter 
which are well worth the attention of those who are flooding our 
literature with the names of legions of so-called new species and 
genera. 
._M. Gaudry observes, “ We must acknowledge that although the old 
