M. B. Thorpe— Armocyon. 373 



Worms, Germany. Taking the Pikermi region as an 

 example, we must suppose that it consisted of grass- 

 covered lowlands which alternated with great forests of 

 beeches, bamboos and allied flora, in which lived rhinoc- 

 eroses, bears and other carnivores, monkeys, great herds 

 of hipparions, antelopes, chalicotheres, proboscidians and 

 so on. There is a notable absence of small forms in these 

 deposits, which may be accounted for by the conditions 

 of their deposition. It is probable that stream currents 

 sufficiently strong and swift to transport the bones of the 

 larger animals were too powerful for the smaller ones 

 and that these small bones were ground to pieces and 

 destroyed by attrition. 



Let us now look at the faunal affinities. The affinities 

 of the Pikermi genera are with those of Africa rather 

 than of modern Europe. There is a notable absence of 

 wolf- or fox-like canids, both in Pikermi and in Eppels- 

 heim, and the family is represented by the curious short- 

 faced Simocyon. Eastward we find a similar faunal 

 phase in Samos and Maragha. In general, the fauna of 

 the latter approaches very closely to that of the Pliocene 

 of the Siwaliks in southern Asia and of China. Samos 

 possesses a hornless giraffine, Samotlierium, a form very 

 close to the present African okapi, while the aardvark is 

 common to both these deposits and to Africa of to-day. 



We have now briefly reviewed the physiographic con- 

 ditions at the time of deposition of these European beds 

 and also have considered the faunal phases and affinities 

 of the animals of that time. We have seen unmistakable 

 evidence pointing to African rather than to European 

 allies of the fauna and the subsequent eastward trend or 

 migration of these forms through India and China, and 

 this leads us to the most probable explanation of the 

 presence in the western coast region of North America 

 of a Simocy on-like form. 



In Pliocene times there is every reason to believe that 

 Asia and North America were connected by land in the 

 vicinity of Bering Strait and that hosts of animals passed 

 and repassed over this strip of land. Of course we might 

 argue that the theory of convergence could account for 

 the similar development of faunal forms on both sides 

 of the Pacific, but according to the laws of chance our 

 argument would seem to be rather ill-founded. For 



