520 



Notices of Memoirs — Eutherian Mammals. 



NOTICES OF DVEIEIMIOIIRS. 



Papers read before Section C (Geology), British Association, Manchester, 



September, 1915. 

 I. The Classification - of the Tertiary Strata by means of the 



Edthkrian Mammals. By Hon. Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, 



M.A., D.Sc, E.R.S. 



rTlHE classification of the Tertiary strata by means of the higher 

 J_ mammalia outlined in my paper before the Geological Society in 

 1880 * has been tested by the many discoveries all over the world 

 since that time, and not found wanting. The details have been filled 

 in, and the principle adopted has been proved to be of worldwide 

 application to North and South America and to Southern Asia and 

 Africa as well as Europe, the living mammalian species in each 

 geographical province being taken as the standard. It has been 

 accepted by Osborne and others, and is now being used for the 

 grouping of the Tertiary strata of America. It has been used in the 

 organization of the Manchester Museum. It is therefore fitting that 

 it should be brought up to the knowledge of to-day. 



The classification's based on the evolution of the mammalia, the 

 only group in the animal kingdom that was, as Gaudry writes, 

 "en pleine evolution" in the Tertiary Period, all the lower forms 

 having already undergone their principal changes and none changing 

 fast enough to be of service in defining the stages. The scheme is as 

 follows : — 



Table of the Divisions of the Tertiary Period. 



Descriptions. 



Historic, in which the events are 

 recorded in history. 



Prehistoric, in which man has multi- 

 plied exceedingly and domesticated 

 both animals, and plants. Wild 

 Eutheria on the land of existing 

 species, with the exception of the 

 Irish elk. 



Pleistocene, in which living species 

 of Eutheria are more abundant than 

 the extinct species. Man appears. 



Pliocene, in which living Eutherian 

 species occur in a fauna mainly of 

 extinct species. 



Miocene, in which the alliance 

 between living and extinct Eutheria is 

 more close than in the preceding stage. 



Oligoeene, in which the alliance 

 between extinct and living Eutheria is 

 more close than in the Eocene. 



Eocene, in which the Eutheria are 

 represented by living, as well as by 

 extinct, families and orders. 



Characteristics. 



Modern types of man. Man the 

 master of nature. 



Modern types of man. Cultivated 

 plants. Domestic animals — dog, 

 sheep, goat, ox, horse, pig, etc. Wild 

 Eutheria of living species. 



Extinct types of mankind. (Modern 

 types ?) Living Eutherian species 

 dominant. Man. 



Living Eutherian species present. 

 Extinct species dominant. 



No living Eutherian species. Living 

 Eutherian genera appear. Anthropoid 

 apes. Extinct genera dominant. 



No living Eutherian genera. Living 

 families and orders. Extinct families 

 and orders numerous. 



No living Eutherian genera. Living 

 families and orders. Lemuroids. 

 Extinct families and orders dominant. 



The most important break in the succession of life-forms occurs at 

 the close of the Oligoeene age in Europe and America. From this 

 1 Q.J.G.S., pp. 379-404. 



