588 LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



The Catarrhina have developed and advanced from the point 

 of divergence far more than have the South American forms, 

 which have changed relatively little since their invasion of the 

 Neotropical region. So far as has been ascertained, South 

 America never had any of the lemurs. 



MAN IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



Though to most people this is undoubtedly the most inter- 

 esting chapter of all the mammalian history, Uttle space can 

 be given to it here, for the reason that the subject belongs rather 

 in the domain of Anthropology and Ethnology than in that of 

 Palaeontology. There can be no question that Man originated 

 in the eastern hemisphere and at a very remote period; 

 abundant remains of his handiwork and of himself have been 

 found in Europe as far back as the early Pleistocene, and recent 

 discoveries in England have increased the already known 

 length of the human habitation of Europe. So primitive and 

 ape-like were some of these ancient men that they have been 

 named as species (Homo ^neanderthalensis and H. \heidei- 

 bergensis) distinct from the existing H. sapiens. Recently 

 discovered and very ancient remains in England have even 

 been referred to a separate genus, \Eoanthropus. 



As has been repeatedly pointed out in the preceding 

 chapters, America received numerous successive waves of mam- 

 malian immigrants during the Pleistocene epoch, at a time 

 when there was a broad land-connection between North 

 America and Asia, where now is Bering Strait ; and to this late 

 connection is due the fact that the Boreal zone of North 

 America (see p. 150) is zoologically a part of the Old World and 

 forms a division of the Holarctic region. Now, there is no 

 known reason why Man, whose powers of dispersal are so 

 superior to those of any other mammal, should not have 

 accompanied these migrations, and it is entirely possible that 

 he actually did so, but the fact has not been demonstrated. 

 It is true that discoveries of Pleistocene Man have been fre- 



