GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND DESCENT. 



139 



condition above described. Such forms are 

 Hyopotamus* Anoplotherium, examples of 

 which are so abundant in the gypsums of 

 Montmartre; Xiphodon, whose canines re- 

 semble those of the musk-deer; the four-toed 

 genus Dichobune, some species of which did 

 not exceed the size of a hare. In America 

 the corresponding genera are present in enor- 

 mous quantity in the Eocene strata; Eomeryx, 

 Opomeryx, and Oreodon represented in the 

 New World the ruminant pigs. 



The first true ruminant in Europe is the 

 genus Gelocus belonging to the Upper 

 Eocene. It was about the size of a dog, but 

 cannot be assigned to any particular family. 



The Tragulida first appear as represented 

 by the still -existing genus Hyasmoschus, 

 remains of which have been found in the 

 phosphorites of Quercy in the west of France, 

 that is, in the Upper Eocene, and in the 

 Middle Miocene of Sansans. This genus 

 accordingly lived in Europe at the same time 

 as the prosimian genus Necrolemur so closely 

 resembling the African pottos, which has 

 been found in the same phosphorites; and it 

 is curious to note that these two genera are 

 now both confined to the west coasts of 

 Africa, while their ancestors lived in Europe. 



Deer and fully characterized Antelopes 

 appear at the same time in the Middle 

 Miocene strata of Sansans and St. Gaudens. 

 The old deer have forked horns, which in 

 certain respects are like those of the muntjac 

 and the pronghorn of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Only in the Upper Miocene and the Pliocene 

 do we meet with antlers with several tines; 

 antlers have thus passed through the same 

 course of development in the geological 

 epochs as they pass through in our stags in 

 the course of life. Yet this family shows 

 the greatest development of the antlers during 

 the Pliocene and Quaternary period; Cervus 

 Sedgwickii from the forest bed of Cromer 

 had gigantic antlers, and still more gigantic 

 were those of the Megaceros from the peat- 

 bogs of Ireland. The latter species, standing 



as regards its horns between the fallow-deer 

 and the elk, was distributed over all central 

 and southern Europe. Whole skeletons of 

 it have been found in the peat-bogs of 

 Ireland, and there is no doubt that these 

 gigantic deer were hunted by man. During 

 the ice-age the elk and reindeer were spread 

 over all Europe north of the Alps and the 

 Pyrenees. The reindeer first retired within 

 the Arctic circle ; it did so even in prehistoric 

 times, and it was only in the middle ages 

 that it was followed by the elk. 



The Antelopes are as old as the deer. 

 Their remains are found in the Upper 

 Miocene of Pikermi, Mont Leberon, and the 

 Sewalik Hills, and in such quantity that it 

 is plain that in those times numerous herds 

 of these animals must have roamed over 

 southern Europe as well as India. Some of 

 the species then living approached the gaz- 

 elles, others the cannas and the Oryx. The 

 saiga has had its former domain restricted 

 like the elk. During the Quaternary period 

 it was spread over the plains of central 

 Europe up to the foot of the Pyrenees. 



The Oxen are apparently descended from 

 the antelopes. The oldest forms are the 

 buffaloes from the Sewalik Hills. The bisons 

 first appear in the Quaternary period in the 

 form of an intermediate species which is to be 

 placed between the European and American 

 bison. Ancestors of the true oxen are found 

 in the Pliocene strata of Italy and Asia; in 

 the Quaternary deposits they are very numer- 

 ous. Goats and sheep can be distinguished 

 by the structure of their skeleton, the only 

 means of distinction accessible to palaeonto- 

 logists, neither from "one another nor from 

 certain antelopes. Unquestionable remains 

 of members of these two groups are first 

 found in Quaternary strata. The highly re- 

 markable intermediate form of the musk-ox, 

 which at the present day is confined to the 

 Polar regions of North America, still inhabited 

 during Quaternary times the north of Ger- 

 many and France. 



