﻿OLIGOCENE PERIOD 145 



from the upper jaw. These animals were, therefore, able to 

 confront some of their difficulties with their heads, when 

 their fellow-ruminants had to take to their heels. Doubt- 

 less too they were busy with their horns in times of court- 

 ship. 



This profusion of horns recalls some stumpy-footed brutes 

 of the Eocene (Tinoceras), but the resemblance ends there. 

 Those monsters were elephantine in size, heavy and clumsy, 

 and deficient in brain power ; whilst these fearsome-headed 

 animals were not much larger than sheep. They were, 

 moreover, of graceful deer-like outline, and had exceptionally 

 well-developed brains. Among living animals chevrotains, 

 deer, and giraffes all hold some affinities with them. They 

 were, therefore, of a comprehensive, patriarchal type. 

 But they were as patriarchs that had lost their fire ; for 

 in the Oligocene they were not on the active list of Evo- 

 lution. 



Meanwhile out of the still tangled mammal life some deer deer 

 of primitive form had emerged. The largest of these did 

 not stand more than two feet in height — the height of the 

 Musk deer ; and they probably closely resembled that 

 animal in appearance (Dremotherium, Amphitragulus). They 

 were all hornless, and probably took to flight on the first sign 

 of danger. Some of them, indeed, had long canine teeth, 

 which may have proved useful in a struggle : but the fortunes 

 of cervine life, and indeed of all more or less defenceless 

 mammals, must for a time have trembled in the balance. 



Ruminants were also gaining importance by camel-like camels 

 developments. Whilst some Eocene ruminants of this type 

 were only about the size of pug-dogs, Oligocene forms were at 

 least as large as good-sized poodles (Poebrotherium). In 

 form they probably resembled the Lama, and their harmless 

 aspect added another peaceful feature to the fauna. Indeed 

 with the horned titanotheres dismissed from the scene early 

 in the Period, with boars untusked, with rhinoceroses, and 

 practically all the ruminants, hornless, it looked as if a 

 reign of peace might arise in the mammal world. But the 

 sign was only surface deep ; and carnivores, moreover, were 

 a standing menace to a millennium. 



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