GEOLOGICAL AGE OF MAST. ARVEKNENSIS. 55 



by Prof. Kaup. In Suffolk, as in Darmstadt, we find the 

 Mastodon longirostris, Rhinoceros Schleiermacheri, Tapirus 

 priscus, Sus palceochoerus, and Cervus dicranoceros, associated 

 together in the same formation ; and, with these Miocene 

 forms of extinct Mammalia in the Red Crag, we have likewise 

 a Cetacean which most closely resembles a Miocene species of 

 that order, previously recognized in the Crag or Molasse of 

 the Continent. At the same time there are, as e.g. in the 

 Megaceros, specimens of newer Pliocene or Pleistocene forms 

 of Mammalia mingled with the older tertiary species ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, Eocene forms of fish, as, e.g. Edaphodon, 

 with Myliobatidce and Eocene Crustacea, have been obtained 

 from the Eed Crag pits. 



'As, however, several of the Mammalia which occur in 

 Miocene formations are also found in the older Pliocene 

 deposits in parts of France, it would be rash, perhaps, to pro- 

 nounce positively on the Miocene age of any of the above-cited 

 Crag fossils ; but it is certain that the majority of those 

 Mammalian fossils, and by far the greatest proportion of indi- 

 vidual specimens, belong to an older tertiary period than the 

 Mammalia of the newer Pliocene drifts, gravels, brick-earths, 

 and bone-caves.' (Loc. cit. p. 229.) 



In this view, regarded in the most restricted sense, a very 

 mixed origin and complex character are attributed to the 

 Mammalian fossils of the Eed Crag, and it would seem to be 

 open to several objections, some of which I shall now state. 

 Professor Owen, having satisfied himself that the Mastodon 

 of the Crag was identical with the Miocene species of Eppel- 

 sheim, was naturally predisposed, where the evidence was at 

 all ambiguous or indecisive, to regard the remains of the 

 other fossil Mammalia with a leaning towards a Miocene 

 origin. First, as regards the Rhinoceros ; the European fossil 

 species of this genus, including Aceratherium, are at present 

 involved in such a maze of confused synonymy that no two 

 living palaeontologists are agreed about the number, or upon 

 the names which ought to be applied to them. In conse- 

 quence, it is exceedingly difficult to arrive at any satisfactory 

 conclusion where a fossil Rhinoceros older than the Siberian 

 species forms an element of the discussion. In the ' British 

 Fossil Mammalia," Professor Owen adopts the opinion of 

 Christol, that Rhin. Schleiermacheri and Rhin. megarhinus are 

 synonyms of the same species, the former having been founded 

 by Kaup upon Miocene remains discovered at Eppelsheim, the 

 latter by Christol upon Pliocene remains from Montpellier. 

 From his late memoir it would appear that he now considers 



1 Op. cit. p. 370. 



