26 OSBORN. 



The climate was extremely mild, subtropical but becoming more 

 temperate, with a persistence of Sequoias and Palms (Sabal), 

 even far north, a gradual increase in the number of deciduous 

 trees which include a large proportion of North American types, 

 and a marked increase in the grasses, stimulating the evolution 

 of deer in the north and antelope in the south, especially towards 

 the close of the period. 



1. Langhien or Burdigalien, Lower Miocene 



The Sables dc V Orlcanais (Paris Basin, max. 20 metres) at 

 Neuville-aux-Bois, Chevilly, Avaray, Chitenay (Loire-et-Cher), 

 with a rich typical fauna, consitute the base of the Langhien* 

 overlying the Aquitanien (Calcaire de Beauce) and underlying 

 the Manic s dc V Orlcanais, and the Calcairc-dc-Montabiizard, 

 beds which are parallel with the Sablcs-dc-Salogiic (40 meters). 



The Calcairc-dc-Mo)itabiizard has a mammal fauna which 

 Douville compared with that of Simorre, while the Sables dc 

 V Orlcanais fauna was formerly compared with that of Sansan. 

 But French palaeontologists (Gaudry, Deperet, '92, p. 155) 

 now consider the Sables dc F Orlcanais fauna somewhat older 

 than that of Sansan, especially because it contains succes- 

 sors of certain Upper Oligocene types such as Brachyodns 

 onoideus, the last of the anthracotheres in Europe, PaUvoeJurrns 

 typns also a survival, and Piocervuhis or Dicroceras (Deperet, 

 '92, p. 155). On the other hand the Sables dc P Orlcanais 

 mark a faunal change from the Oligocene of the sharpest kind 

 in the presence of the Proboscidia, Dinotheriuni bavaricnni and 

 Mastodon angnstidens, both typically and exclusively Miocene 

 species, which possibly had recently migrated into Europe from 

 Africa by means of a favorable land connection. The Sables de 

 I Orlcanais therefore constitute the typical lower Miocene of 

 Europe. Freshwater equivalents (Deperet, '95, p. 397) of 

 these beds are the Granen Si'isszvasscr Molassc (Lausanne) con- 

 taining a rhinoceros ; Engelhaldc (Bern) ; Rappenfluh (Aarburg). 

 The Brackische Schichten (Ulm) are transitional ; partly calca- 

 reous deposits near Ulni (Eckingen, Eselsberg, Hockheim), con- 

 tain Anchithcrinni and a fauna which is partly Oligocene, partly 



