PSYCHOZOIC ERA— AGE OF MAN— RECENT EPOCH. 



and imperfect wings, like a new-born chicken, became extinct only about 

 150 or 200 hundred years ago. The Apteryx, to which of all living birds, 

 the Dinornis, Aptomis, etc., are most nearly allied, still survives, ready 

 to disappear (Fig. 970). 



The Bos primigenius, the gigantic ox of Quaternary times, is sup- 

 posed to be the same as ths Urus of Caesar, and therefore became ex- 



Fig. 970.— Apteryx Australia. 



tinct since Eoman times. The Quaternary bison of Europe would 

 have been now entirely extinct, but for the imperial edict which pre- 

 serves a few in the forests of Lithuania. The lion, the tiger, the bison, 

 the elephant, and the rhinoceros, and, in fact, all the fiercer and larger 

 animals, are even now disappearing before the advance of civilized man. 

 Thus, in passing from geological to present times we trace rocks 

 into sediments and soils ; geological agencies into chemical and physi- 

 cal agencies, now in operation ; extinct faunas and floras into the liv- 

 ing fauna and flora ; in a word, geology into chemistry and physics, and 

 paleontology into zoology and botany. 



