290 GEOLOGY. 



and this family had already become differentiated; but on the deriva- 

 tion of the Hominidtc the record throws no immediate light. 



The marsupials. — The marsupials were but meagerly represented in 

 America or Europe, and the period witnessed the last appearance of 

 the opossum in Europe. The state of the marsupials and monotremes 

 in Australia, where they came into dominant importance later, is 

 undetermined. 



The lower vertebrates. — Little of moment is recorded relative to 

 the lower vertebrates. Not much is known of American Miocene 

 birds, but their advancement in later stages implies that they con- 

 tinued their evolution with measurable rapidity, and this is supported 

 by the European evidence. The reptiles had very generally assumed 

 the modern forms, and were represented by turtles, snakes, and croco- 

 diles. The amphibians came again to notice in the form of a large 

 salamander, whose remains, found at Oeningen, Switzerland, formerly 

 attained an unworthy celebrity from false identification as a human 

 skeleton, and from the application of the pretentious designation, 

 Homo diluvii testis. 



Summary. — A general view of the American Miocene fauna shows 

 that the great order of ungulates took precedence in evolution and 

 that both the odd- and even-toed branches participated actively. 

 Closely following these in importance, and dependent on them for the 

 conditions of their evolution, came the carnivores, while the rodents 

 occupied a median place, and the insectivores and lemuroids notably 

 declined. 



The European record bears a similar general interpretation, with 

 the ungulates somewhat less pronouncedly in the lead, the carnivores 

 somewhat better deployed, and the proboscidians a conspicuous factor, 

 w T hile the important evolution of the higher primates seems to have 

 been wholly confined to the Old World. 



The Marine Life. 



Provincialism dominant. — The pronounced provincialism that had 

 been inaugurated in the Oligocene epoch continued throughout the 

 remainder of the Cenozoic era. There was some amelioration during 

 the Miocene, but it was not marked. No essential relief was possible 

 so long as the shallow seas remained mere bordering tracts, as in North 

 America, or mere bays and straits, as in Europe. Even the border 



