SUCCESSIVE MAMMALIAN FAUNAS 213 



genus (Cyon) as the Dhole of India. The weasel family 

 (MusteUdae) were less numerous and varied than in the northern 

 continent, as they still are; coatis (Nasua) and raccoons 

 (Procyon) were abundant and one species of the latter was much 

 larger than any existing one; extinct species of skunk {Co- 

 nepatus), tayra (Tayra) and otter {Lutra) were also present, 

 but the badgers, minks, martens and wolverenes were not. 



The hoofed animals were represented by a great variety 

 of forms, both immigrant and indigenous, of which the latter 

 belonged to orders now entirely extinct. Horses were com- 

 mon in all parts of the continent, where fossils of this epoch 

 have been obtained, and are referable to two very distinct 

 groups: (1) to the typical genus Equus, of which tliree species 

 have been described, all somewhat more primitive than the 

 True Horse {E. caballus) and, Uke most of the Pleistocene 

 species of North America, with a certain resemblance to the 

 zebras and asses ; (2) to an extinct group of four genera, the 

 best known of which is jHippidion. The species of this genus 

 (which has also been reported from North ■ America, though 

 upon hardly sufficient evidence) had most exceptional characters 

 in the skull, and the head was relatively large and clumsy, with 

 narrow and very high facial region. The neck was com- 

 paratively short, the limbs heavy and the feet short. These 

 animals can hardly have been very swift runners. A very 

 interesting member of this group is ]Hyperhippidium, a small 

 horse found in the Andes, with remarkably short feet, well 

 adapted for a mountain life. The only other perissodactyls 

 were tapirs, which ranged down to the Argentine pampas, 

 much farther south than now. 



The Artiodactyla were much more varied; there were 

 peccaries, many species of llamas, which then extended into 

 Brazil, and were not confined, as at present, to the colder 

 portions of the continent. There were also numerous deer, 

 all of the South American type, and two different antelopes 

 have been reported, though that family has no representatives 



