174 EVOLUTION IN THE PAST 



Eocene ancestors— small-brained, weak-limbed, and with 

 teeth less efficient than those of true carnivores. Once in 

 the very front rank of flesh-eating animals, their line had 

 now sunk into utter insignificance. It was long since they 

 had enjoyed " uppermost rooms at feasts," and they had 

 probably by this time come down to subsisting entirely on 

 carrion. Even in that field of regalement they must have 

 had keen competitors ; and it is not surprising that during 

 early Pliocene times their annals came to a close. 



Bears with vanishing affinities to dogs and indistinguish- 

 able from forms in Europe were about the land, but in 

 dwindling numbers (Hycenardos). Other forms abroad no 

 longer laboured under the suspicion of being partially dogs 

 (Ursus Theobaldi). Indeed, they seem to have been closely 

 allied to the modern sloth bear. 



Badgers were certainly in existence in parts of Asia at 

 this time ; but from what holes or burrows of the misty 

 past they had found their way into creation is quite un- 

 known. 

 ELEPHANTS Trunky life was well in view in India in forms new and 

 old. Here, as in Europe, were quaint but stately brutes, 

 some with protrusive under-jaws (Tetrabelodon), others with 

 chins bent and sabre-tusked (Dinotherium). The career, 

 however, of these old-fashioned types was fast drawing to a 

 close, and the antiqueness of the animals was accentuated 

 in India by the presence of various species more advanced 

 in development. Among these were some imposing brutes 

 which, on account of the character of their molar teeth, 

 have received the name of Mastodon, or " nipple tooth " 

 {M. sivalensis). The molars of these animals were ridged 

 across the surface much as in the case of modern elephants ; 

 but the ridges were not so numerous, and the inter-ridgeal 

 spaces, instead of being filled with cement, were usually 

 raised up into little knobs or nipples. But it was not merely 

 in possessing teeth which, by reason of their ridged surfaces, 

 resembled in character the teeth of modern elephants, that 

 mastodons were remarkable ; for the long-jawed brutes of 

 earher appearance had their teeth more or less ridged in 

 the same manner. Distinguishing features of the new forms 



