﻿172 EVOLUTION IN THE PAST 



muntjacs, and were therefore in this respect not in advance 

 of Miocene deer (Cervulus dicranoceros). Many of them, 

 however, were antlered more elaborately. Some of these 

 with three-tined antlers were, no doubt, closely related to 

 the spotted deer now living in India (C. pardinensis). Others 

 were abroad with four-tined antlers, of a pattern now quite 

 unknown (C. tetraceros). However long they lived, deer do 

 not seem at this time ever to have possessed antlers with 

 more than four tines or points. 

 swine Other animals belonged to the swine family. This branch 

 of life ever since it commenced in a small way in Eocene 

 times had been progressing ; but it was not until the Miocene 

 that animals appeared describable as true pigs. Those 

 were all small forms, and were closely allied to the pigs 

 now living in the Andaman Islands. Several pig-like brutes 

 of much larger size had certainly appeared before then ; 

 but they were unorthodox in some of their tooth or toe 

 tenets. In early Pliocene times orthodox pigs of small size 

 were in some force in the forests ; but the family was now 

 dignified by pigs of much larger dimensions. Some of these, 

 although not so well tusked as the Wild Boars of our own 

 time, were bigger than those animals (5. erymantheus). 

 They were not, however, so big in the body as some of the 

 old unorthodox forms, and were feebly tusked in com- 

 parison. 

 primates The most important tenants of the woods were undoubtedly 

 the apes. Their importance was, of course, mainly morpho- 

 logical ; for it is not to be supposed that they were 

 primates in the sense of being chiefs or rulers. Some of the 

 creatures were anthropoid or man-like apes, but their re- 

 mains are too fragmentary for more precise identification 

 (Paidopithex). Others had affinities with the Langurs, or 

 " Holy Apes " of India, as well as with the Macaque apes, 

 a species of which now lives at Gibraltar (Mesopithecus) ; 

 whilst a few, although sanctification was as yet a far-off 

 event, seem to have been " holy " apes pure and simple 

 (Semnopithecus). 

 carnivores Heavily limbed " sabre-tooth " cats were still the most 

 formidable of the carnivores (Machcerodus) ; and new flesh- 



