THE TAPIES OF SOUTH AMERICA 353 



the end of the Pleistocene Period, nor does Professor Osborn 

 suggest such a mode of origin. The problem, therefore, still 

 remains unsolved. Mr. Earle* pointed out that tapir-like 

 creatures or tapiroids arose about the same time in Europe 

 and North America. In the light of more recent researches 

 it would appear that the Eocene Systemodon and Iseotolophus 

 are confined to North America, while the European tapiroid 

 remains belong to the related family Lophiodontidae. The 

 true tapirs, to which the American genera belong, do not 

 make their appearance in Europe until the Oligocene Period. 

 According to Professor Osborn,t the existing Malayan 

 tapir is almost identical with the Pliocene tapir of southern 

 Europe (T. arvernensis), and I cannot help thinking that the 

 genus Tapirus has evolved in the Mediterranean region from 

 American ancestors much earlier thaa is generally supposed, 

 the modern tapirs having spread west and east from this centre 

 of dispersal at a time when the mid-Atlantic land bridge was 

 still in existence. 



If we pass from Ecuador southward along the chain of the 

 Andes, we meet with a number of new forms of animal life, 

 all of which are more or less confined to this great mountain 

 range. In certain districts in Peru at high altitudes there 

 are immense colonies of curious little squirrel-like rodents 

 with very large ears and grey fur of extreme softness. Like 

 the prairie-dogs and other North American rodents, these 

 chinchillas, as they are called, live in burrows. There is a 

 larger kind, too, which has still longer ears and great black 

 whiskers, differing sufficiently from Chinohilla to deserve 

 recognition as the distinct genus Lagidium. Both genera 

 inhabit exclusively the high mountains between Peru and 

 Chile. A third member of the same tribe, the viscacha, lives on 

 the plains of Argentina, and will be more fully described later 

 on. These three genera included in the family Viscaciidae 

 (Lagostomidae) have, to judge from their distribution, pro- 

 bably originated from one or more western ancestors. But 

 Dr. Ameghino J has described quite a number of genera 



* Earle, C, "Fossil Mammalia of Europe," p. 115. 



t Osborn, H. P., "Age of Mammals," p. 315. 



J Ameghino, Fl., " Formations s^dimentaires," p. 428. 



L.A. A A 



