THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
In the late Tertiary formations of various parts of Europe 
have been found remains of several extinct monkeys and bab- 
Fossil Pri- 0008, ancestral to those of the present day; and in 
arate: Madagascar occur fossil lemurs, one of which 
(Megaladapis) was as large as the gorilla, with limbs remark- 
ably massive and powerful. The early Tertiary rocks of North 
America have yielded various extinct Primates (Adapis, Notharc- 
tus, Anaptomorphus, etc.), more or less intermediate between 
monkeys and lemurs, and indicating that these two great divi- 
sions of the Primate stock were not then widely separated. 
Then as now this stock was adapted to arboreal life, and dis- 
tinguished from the contemporary ancestors of carnivores and 
insectivores by the opposable thumb and great toe, nails instead 
of claws upon fingers and toes, and by various dental peculiari- 
ties. But the divergence was by no means so great as now, and 
in the preceding Cretaceous all three no doubt were merged in 
a single primitive stock. 
Lemurs and their Kin 
The second and inferior division of the Primates is that of 
the lemurs (Lemuroidea), a large group of queer, interesting 
little animals now found only in Madagascar, tropical Africa, 
and the Orient. This widely scattered distribution is so pe- 
culiar that it could not be accounted for until paleontologists 
began, about 1860, to report the discovery of fossil remains 
of lemurs not only in Africa, Europe, and northern India, but 
in the rocks of the western United States, showing that at the 
beginning of the Tertiary period the progenitors of these animals 
were scattered all over the globe, which was then much warmer 
in climate than now. Those forerunners of the group show 
many resemblances to the primitive Insectivora. Change of 
climate and other reasons caused them to become extinct, in 
most parts of the world, and at last to survive only in the two 
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