242 



LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



The limits of the South American Miocene are very doubtful. 

 The Parana formation, here regarded as lower Pliocene, may- 

 prove to be more properly referable to the upper Miocene. 

 No other upper Miocene is known. 



To the earlier, probably middle, Miocene may be referred 

 the wonderful Santa Cruz fauna of Patagonia. It is extremely 



■■■i'*,r!(S-.j>*"-r 



Fig. 131. — The fgazelle-camel (fStenomylus hitchcocki) of the lower Miocene. 

 Restored from skeletons in the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. 



difficult to convey to the reader any adequate conception of 

 this great assemblage of mammals, because most of them 

 belonged to orders which have altogether vanished from the 

 earth and are only remotely like the forms with which we are 

 familiar in the northern hemisphere. To one who knows only 

 these northern animals, it seems like entering another world 

 when he begins the study of the Santa Cruz fossils. If any 

 North American mammals had then entered South America, 

 which is not probable, they had not extended their range as 

 far as Patagonia. Marvellously rich and varied as the Santa 



