PALEONTOLOGY 135 



how can we account for the Zeuglodon, a whale 70 

 feet long? 



It is claimed by evolutionists that some carnivorous 

 land animal was forced to take to the water, and that 

 from this the Zeuglodon was evolved. 



If it is claimed that the above placental Mammals 

 were evolved in the Cretaceous, then it becomes nec- 

 essary for the evolutionist to account for the absence 

 of their remains in a continuous record where other 

 vertebrate fossils abound. Dana, in the language 

 above quoted, shows his surprise at their absence 

 "notwithstanding the occurrence in many regions 

 over America, as well as the other continents, of a 

 gradual passage from the Cretaceous formation into 

 the Tertiary." 



Le Conte, speaking of Eocene mammals, says "there 

 is at a certain horizon a rapid and most extraordi- 

 nary change in the life-system. This it seems impossi- 

 ble to explain on the theory of evolution, unless we 

 admit periods of rapid evolution."* "True placental 

 mammals not only appear suddenly and in great 

 numbers, but of nearly all orders. In the oldest 

 Eocene beds, (Wahsatch beds of the Green River and 

 San Juan basins) Cope finds eighty-seven species of 

 vertebrates, two-thirds of which are mammals. In 

 the Fort Bridger beds of the Green River basin (Mid- 

 dle Eocene), Marsh finds 150 species of vertebrates, 

 of which the larger number are mammals, some 

 Herbivora, some Carnivora, and some Lemurine 



monkeys. "f 



In the Eocene of the Paris basin in France, fifty 

 species of mammals have been found, forty of which 

 are Tapir-like. 



At the time Le Conte wrote the above, no marsu- 

 pials had been discovered in the Cretaceous. Their 



* Elements of Geology, p. 497. t Ibid, p. 517. 



