88 THE WHITE RIVER BADLANDS 



tail long and powerful, limbs short and stout, feet planti- 

 grade, number of toes five, claws large and non-retractile. 

 The animal is characterized as a gigantic wolverine, equal- 

 ling a jaguar or a black bear in size, but in proportion more 

 like the ratel. It was evidently predaceous like the wolver- 

 ine, but seems to have been to some degree of burrowing dis- 

 position. 



INSECTIVORES 



Remains of insectivorous animals are recognized as far 

 back as earliest Tertiary time, but the fossils are not 

 abundant. The White River badlands have yielded several 

 species, but they are fragmentary. They belong to several 

 families, particularly the hedgehogs, the shrews and the 

 golden moles. The identification of fossil remains of the 

 golden mole in South Dakota brought up certain important 

 questions and speculations. True moles (Talpidae) are now 

 found in the subarctic or temperate zones of all the northern 

 continents, but not in or south of the tropics. However, in 

 the south temperate zone, there are animals which have 

 adopted mole-like habits and superficially resemble the true 

 moles to a greater or less degree. The Chrysochloridae or 

 golden moles of South Africa are of this nature. A similar 

 animal in fossil form has been found in the Upper Miocene of 

 southern South America. The peculiar geographical dis- 

 tribution of certain animals and plants of southern lands 

 has long been a source of speculation and study and this 

 finding of a fossil golden mole in South Dakota so far re- 

 moved from its present day and fossil relatives, adds a new 

 feature of interest. 



RODENTS 



The rodents or gnawers as regards numbers are over- 

 whelmingly predominant among living mammals. Their 

 most prominent and universal character, the dentition, shows 

 the absence of canine teeth and the paramount importance 

 of front teeth or incisors. They appear to have originated 

 in North America in early Eocene time and to have been 

 rather rapidly distributed to the other great land masses of 

 the earth. In the White River region they appear first in 

 the Middle Oligocene, ancestral squirrels, rabbits, beavers, 

 and rats, being represented. The beavers or beaver-like 



