14 BRITISH MAMMALS 



Though the Mammalia may have originated from reptilian 

 forms in North America (though this is by no means certain), there 

 is no doubt that during the Tertiary Epoch this class had its most 

 wonderful development in India. India would seem to rank 

 first as a focus of radiation, as the region which has developed 

 the most remarkable and numerous mammalians. From India or 

 Southern Asia, as a whole, Europe, Africa, North Asia, North and 

 even South America, received many of their extinct and existing 

 mammalian forms. North America ranks next in importance as 

 the area which has evolved and distributed mammalian types. 

 Indeed, it would seem as if the Primates, the order of which man 

 is a member, originated in North America, and Britain may have 

 been one of the stepping-stones by which the North American 

 lemurs entered Europe, Africa, and Southern Asia. South 

 America was a selfish continent as regards mammalian develop- 

 ment. It originated many striking forms of ungulates which 

 lived and died within its limits. It received its monkeys from 

 Africa, but it is doubtful whether it returned to Africa or trans- 

 mitted to Australia more than a few types of rodents and 

 marsupials. 



The value of Africa as a centre of mammalian develop- 

 ment is still unknown, because of our great ignorance as to its 

 fossil mammalian types. It is possible, however, that Northern 

 Africa originated the order Proboscidea (elephants), and the 

 tropical regions of the continent have no doubt developed special 

 genera of antelopes. 



Roughly speaking, since the close of the Secondary Epoch 

 Britain has been dependent for its supply of Mammalia on 

 Germany, France, and Spain. We have really only had the 

 leavings of Central and Western Europe ; and, moreover, in 

 the distribution of the Mammalia, Scotland, and especially Ireland, 

 fared miserably compared to England and Wales. This was 

 partly due to the Glacial episodes which afflicted the close of the 

 Tertiary Epoch, and which placed under ice nearly all Scotland 

 and Ireland, and much of Wales. At the end of the Tertiary 

 Epoch the British region richest in mammalian forms seems to 



