EOCENE 501 



This basin is classic ground, for in it were made the studies of 

 Cuvier and Brogniart, which led to the recognition of the Tertiary 

 as a distinct system and founded the science of Palaeontology. 



On the west coast of Africa the sea encroached in a narrow 

 belt. Australia has no marine Eocene, but New Zealand has 

 extensive deposits of this epoch, between which and the Creta- 

 ceous no definite line can be drawn. 



The Tertiary formations of South America cannot yet be cor- 

 related with those of other continents, and will be considered 

 together in a separate section. 



The Eocene thus had broad seas where now is land, and con- 

 tinents now connected were then separated by straits and sounds. 

 On the other hand, there were then land bridges joining land 

 areas which are now far apart. Some of these land bridges may 

 be reconstructed with much confidence, while others are more or 

 less probable. America was connected with Asia across what is 

 now Bering's Sea, and also with Europe, probably by an extension 

 of Greenland and Iceland. The Antarctic continent apparently 

 had a much greater extension than it has now, and seems to have 

 been joined with both Australia and South America. It is quite 

 possible that Africa was more or less directly connected with the 

 same land mass. If this be true, then in Eocene times the north- 

 ern continents, Europe and Asia, were joined in the Arctic latitudes 

 by way of North America, while South America, Africa, and Aus- 

 tralia radiated in three great lines from the South Pole. Between 

 the two series of continents, northern and southern, swept the 

 transverse seas, of which the Mediterranean and Caribbean are 

 remnants. 



Eocene Life 



Except for the Vertebrates, Eocene life is chiefly instructive 

 from the manner of its distribution over the globe. Invertebrates 

 and plants are nearly the same as modern forms, the genera, for 

 the most part, still existing, though the species are nearly all 

 extinct. 



Plants. — The Eocene flora of North America is found pre- 

 served in widely separated localities, — Canada, Montana, Wyo- 



