14 



GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



Table-ease are. very old Carnivora, which appear to have been always 



2< small animals confined to the Old World. As shown by 



remains in Table-case 2, Viverra itself seems to have lived 



unchanged from the Upper Eocene period to the present day. 



The Mustelidse, or weasels, badgers, and otters (Table- 

 case 2), also date back to the Upper Eocene period, beginning 

 in the Old World and then spreading to America. The 

 occurrence of the glutton (Gulo luscus) in the English and 

 Welsh cave-earths, and in the Forest Bed, is interesting. 



The raccoons, or Procyonidse, are scarcely known among 

 fossils ; but teeth from the Eed Crag (Lower Pliocene) of 

 Suffolk seem to belong to the existing Indian Ailurus or a 

 closely allied genus (plaster cast in Table-case 2). 



The Canidse, oi wolves, foxes, jackals and dogs, have 

 scarcely changed in any essential respects since the Miocene 

 period, when they already flourished both in the Old World 

 and in North America. Murchison's famous " fossil fox of 

 Pier-ease 3. Oeningen," from the Upper Miocene of Baden, is a typical 

 member of the family. Cynodictis and allied genera (Table- 

 case 2), from the Oligocene Phosphorites and the Upper 

 Eocene of France, connect the Canidae with the Viverridae. 

 Pier-ease 4. The bears, or Ursidse, which are at present distributed 

 Table-ease over near jy a \\ tfie WO rld, except Australia and New Zealand, 

 have only had so wide a range since the dawn of the 

 Pleistocene period. So far as known, the family began its 



Pig. 5. — Skull and lower jaw of the Cave-bear (Ursus spelieus), from a 

 Pleistocene Cavern Deposit in Bavaria ; about one-sixth nat. size. 



existence in Europe and Asia, where there are many remains 

 of Pliocene, Miocene, and Oligocene animals which must be 

 regarded as ancestors. The true bears of modern times are 

 mixed feeders, and have teeth modified accordingly. In the 



