6l2 



RECORD OF MEETINGS OF THE 



Class 



Sub-class 



Infra-class 



Cohort 



Super-order 



Order 



Sub-order 



Super-family 



Family 



Sub-family 



Genus 



namely, class, order, genus, we require eleven kinds of branches, 

 namely: 



Super-orders. The forty known orders 

 of mammals shown in the following table, 

 namely, twenty-one living and nineteen 

 extinct, cannto as yet be united uniformly 

 into super-orders, yet the tendency of 

 discovery will be constantly in this direc- 

 tion. Thus Roth's union of the South 

 American hoofed forms into Notungulata 

 (i.e., Southern Ungulates) is a happy step 

 forward; the Hyracoidea of Africa may 

 possibly be added to this branch. Simi- 

 larly the tendency of discovery (Andrews) 

 is to revive De Blainville's idea and unite 

 the Proboscidea and Sirenia into a new 

 super-order, to which possibly the Pyro- 

 theria of South America may some day 

 be added. Our super-order column, how- 

 ever, requires much additional study and 

 discovery. 

 Orders. Among the forms in our order column which are 

 still most uncertain are the above-mentioned Pyrotheria, the 

 Barypoda (an order proposed for the reception of Asinoitherium 

 and related forms of Eocene Africa), the Mesodonta (primitive 

 North American monkeys which will possibly be included 

 with the South American forms), the Tubulidentata (South 

 American aardvarks, latterly removed from the Edentata 

 and showing some affinities in the brain to the Ungulata, Elliot), 

 the Pholidota (Pangolins, also recently removed from the Eden- 

 tata although the brain presents a feeble claim to this relation- 

 ship — Elliot), the Proglires (an order of doubtful value and 

 position), the Protodonta and Allotheria, also of doubtful 

 relationship. A striking recent triumph of palaeontology 

 is the removal of the Zeuglodontia (ancient Eocene whale- 

 like forms) to the vicinity of the Creodonta; it had long been 

 suspected that the Cetacea should be nearer the Carnivora 

 than other orders. Beddard suggests Edentate affinities. 



