THE ORIGIN OF MAN 79 



appeared. Likewise there was a great reduction 

 among the reef corals, the replacing of the dom- 

 inant ganoids by the teleosts or bony fishes, and, 

 finally the complete dying out of the various 

 stocks of marine saurians. On the land the 

 dragons or pterodactyls vanished, likewise the 

 dinosaurs and birds with teeth. In the sea the 

 reptiles were displaced by the teleost fishes; on 

 the land they were overwhelmed by the rise of 

 the mammals ; in the air they yielded to the more 

 finely organized birds, or, in other words, the 

 reptilian dominance was destroyed with the end 

 of the Mesozoic era, during which entire time 

 they had been the characteristic animals of the 

 sea and even more of the land. 



We now enter the third era, the Cenozoic, or 

 the time of modern life. The lands of this era 

 were dominated by mammals, and the seas and 

 oceans were not devoid of them. Mammals were 

 as characteristic of the Cenozoic as reptiles were 

 of the Mesozoic. They, however, had their origin 



