.114 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[TOXODON. 



genera included within the Pachydermata greatly 

 exceeds that of genera containing living species, 

 of which latter many, as Equus, Elephas, Rhino- 

 ceros, and Hippopotamus, have fossil as well as 

 living species : so that the number of fossil or ex- 

 tinct species already ascertained of the Pachyder- 

 matous order, taken collectively, is far greater than 

 the number of living species. In some, perhaps 

 many, instances the affinities of the fossil Pachy- 

 derms are not understood, fragments of bones only 

 having been recovered : in some instances they can- 

 not be mistaken. 



We began our observation on the Pachydermata 

 by alluding to the unfilled intervals between the 

 forms now living on the surface of the earth, and 

 a statement that in fossil forms — some yet to be 

 discovered, others to be made out, and, as it were, 

 re-constructed — would the lost links in the chain be 

 recovered; and we again express our opinion that, 

 ultimately the work will be, if not perfectly, at least 

 to a great extent, accomplished. 



That our ideas are not unreasonable we have 

 from time to time satisfactory proofs. Sir Thomas 

 Mitchell has recently transmitted from Australia 

 some fossil bones which incontestably prove the 

 existence of at least one gigantic Pachyderm, at 

 some remote period, in that region. These fossils 

 consist of a portion of a molar tooth, of the shaft 

 of a thigh bone, with part of the spine, of a sca- 

 pula, and some smaller fragments of a long bone. 

 They were found on the Darling Downs, those ex- 

 tensive plains marked to the south-west of Moreton 

 Bay on most maps of Australia, at the source of 

 the river Darling, and upwards of 4000 feet above 

 the level of the sea. Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his 

 letter to Professor Owen, to whom the relics were 

 forwarded, states that these huge bones are found 

 in some abundance. It would appear from Profes- 

 sor Owen's examination, that this huge extinct 

 animal was allied both to the Mastodon and Dino- 

 therium. Fig. 499 represents the femur of this 

 extinct Australian Pachyderm: a, its transverse sec- 

 tion. Figs. 500, 501, two views of the portion of a 

 molar tooth of the same. These fossils, now in the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, cannot, 

 observes Professor Owen, be contemplated without 

 suggesting many interesting reflections. 



"They tell us plainly that the time was when 

 Australia's arid plains were trodden by the hoofs of 

 heavy Pachyderms ; but could the land then have 

 been, as now, parched by long continued droughts, 

 with dry river-courses, containing here and there 

 a pond of water? All the facts and analogies which 

 throw light on the habits of the extinct Mastodons 

 and Dinotheres indicate these creatures to have 

 been frequenters of marshes, swamps, or lakes. 

 Other relations of land and sea than now charac- 

 terize the southern hemisphere, a different condition 

 of the surface of the land and of the meteoric in- 

 fluences governing the proportion and distribution 

 of fresh-water on that surface, may therefore be 

 conjectured to. have prevailed when huge Masto- 

 dontoid Pachyderms constituted part of the quad- 

 ruped population of Australia. May not the change 

 from a humid climate to the present particularly 

 diy one have been the cause, or chief cause, of the 

 extinction of such Pachyderms? Was not the 

 ancient Terra Australis, when so populated, of 

 greater extent than the present insular continent? 

 The mutual dependences between large mammalian 

 quadrupeds and other members of the animal king- 

 dom suggest other reflections in connection with 

 the present fossil. If the extinct species ever so 

 abounded as to require its redundancy to be sup- 

 pressed by a carnivorous enemy, then some de- 

 structive species of this kind must have co-existed, 

 of larger dimensions than the extinct Dasyurus 

 laniarius, the ancient destroyer of the now equally 

 extinct gigantic Kangaroos, Macropus Titan, &c, 

 whose remains were discovered in the bone-eaves 

 of Wellington Valley. Extremely few eopropha- 

 gous beetles have hitherto, I believe, been found in 

 Australia ; and the scarcity of such is readily ex- 

 plained by the absence of native species of "large 

 herbivorous mammals ; but the dung of the Masto- 

 dontoid quadrupeds which formerly existed in Aus- 

 tralia must then have afforded the requisite condi- 

 tions for a greater abundance of such Coleoptera. 

 These and other speculations are naturally suggested 

 by the highly interesting fossils here described. 

 The great importance of such organic remains will 

 be obvious from the few inferences which have 

 been briefly noted; our obligations to the en- 

 lightened collector and transmitter of the Masto- 

 dontoid fossils are great, and the arrival of addi- 

 tional facts and specimens will be most earnestly 

 welcomed." 



A consideration of the fossil relics of extinct ani- 

 mals throws the mind back upon remote periods 

 before the surface of our globe had acquired its 

 present aspect, its present arrangement of land 

 and water, of mountains and plains, islands and 

 continents] and when we begin to review the history 



of its phases, we find ourselves carried back into the 

 obscure of time, till— in comparison with the ages 

 which have passed since the commencement of the 

 Primary period, wherein those oldest rocks were 

 formed in which there are no traces of animal or 

 vegetable life : to the conclusion of the Secondary 

 geological period— the date of man's existence on 

 the globe seems but of yesterday, and the few thou- 

 sand years through which he has played his part 

 sink into a span. 



But though the vast antiquity of the globe is 

 clearly demonstrated, still the length of time which 

 has elapsed during the formation of the whole or 

 of any definite portion of the crust of the earth is a 

 problem yet to be solved. We know that at one 

 period life had no place on our planet. The gneiss 

 and mica-schist systems of strata of the Primary pe- 

 riod are destitute of all trace of organic remains. 

 In these, the most ancient of rocks, which exhibit to 

 us the combined effects of igneous and aqueous 

 agency, no fossil relics speak of a Fauna or Flora 

 during their formation, and we may believe that 

 few or none of the organised wonders of nature 

 were then in existence, because the physical con- 

 ditions of the globe requisite for 'the existence of 

 animals and plants were not then established.'* How 

 long did this state of the earth continue? It is a 

 question which cannot be answered. Passing from 

 the primeval rocks, 



" Where tlie bird d trcd not build, nor insect wing 

 Flit o'er the lierbless granite," 



we come to the Suowdon rocks of argillaceous slate, 

 and the calcareous and argillaceous rocks, consti- 

 tuting the Cumbrian system, in which a few traces of 

 organic life have been" detected, but of organic life 

 in its lowest type. Then the Silurion or transition 

 system succeeds, consisting of sandstones, limestones, 

 and shale ; here corals, crinoidea, trilobites, terebra- 

 tulae, &c, all belonging to extinct species and often 

 to extinct genera and families, and all aquatic, are 

 abundant. From these systems of the primary 

 strata, we advance to the secondary strata — rich in 

 oceanic life — divided into the carboniferous system, 

 the saliferous or new red-sandstone system, the 

 oolitic system, and the cretaceous or chalk system. 

 The deposits constituting each of these systems are 

 replete with organic remains, but all of extinct, spe- 

 cies and often of extinct, genera. The coal-mea- 

 sures are rich in an extinct Flora, principally con- 

 sisting of ferns, often in an extraordinary degree of 

 preservation, the most delicate leaves being spread 

 out, and so arranged as to constitute a beautiful 

 Hortus Siccus of a long-past period. About 300 

 species of plants have been discovered in the coal- 

 measures of this and other countries. Their luxu- 

 riance indicates a genial temperature and a humid 

 ground. " It would hardly be credited," says Pro- 

 fessor Lindley, in his 'Fossil Flora of Great Britain,' 

 " by persons unacquainted with the evidence upon 

 which such facts repose, that in the most dreary and 

 desolate regions of the present day there once flou- 

 rished groves of tropical plants, of Conifero?, like 

 the Norfolk Island and Araucarian pines, of bananas, 

 tree-ferns, huge cacti and palms; that the marshes 

 were filled with rush-like plants 15 or 20 feet high, 

 and the coverts with ferns like the undergrowth of 

 a West India island. Our engraving (Fig. 510) is 

 a restoration of some of the animals and plants 

 characteristic of the oolitic system (lias, limestone, 

 oolite, &c.) of the secondary strata, which will 

 serve to convey some idea of the Fauna and Flora of 

 the period when those strata were in process of 

 formation — a period in which strange monsters 

 ploughed their way through waters which have 

 given place to solid rock. Plants. — a, Ferns (Fili- 

 ces). b, Zamia (Cycadae). c, Arbor Vitae. d, 

 Dracaena, e, Araucaria pine. /, Equisefum. — 

 Animals. — g, Dragon-fly. //, Tortoise, j, Mega- 

 losaurus. k, Ichthyosaurus. /, Plesiosaurus. m, 

 Ammonites, n, Echinus, o, Nautilus, p, Cuttle- 

 fish. </, Enerinites. r, Pterodactylus. 



The chalk system is rich in extinct corals, zoo- 

 phytes, and echinoderms. Our lofty chalk hills and 

 the white cliffs of Dover have been formed through 

 a long succession of ages at the bottom of a deep 

 sea. From the Secondary we advance to the Ter- 

 tiary periods. In general, says a talented writer, 

 "No contrast can be more complete than that 

 between the secondary and the tertiary rocks; the 

 former retaining so much uniformity of character, 

 even for enormous distances, as to appear like the ef- 

 fect of one determined sequence of general physical 

 agencies ; the latter exhibiting an almost boundless 

 local variety, and relations to the configuration of 

 land and sea not to be mistaken. The organic bodies 

 of the secondary strata are obviously and completely 

 distinct from those of the modern land and sea; but 

 in the tertiary deposits, it is the resemblance between 

 fossil and recent kinds of corals, shells, plants, qua- 



* We exclude microscopic animalcules from our consideration, be- 

 cause at present we scarcely know under what circumstances they can 



live. 



drupeds, and other vertebrata, which first arrests the 

 judgment. In general there is a decided break 

 between the two groups of rocks, a discontinuity 

 which is nowhere completely filled. Yet besides the 

 pseudo-tertiary or transition chalky rocks of Maes- 

 tricht and the Pyrenees, and the conchiferous mails 

 of Cosau, we have in England and France above 

 the chalk a prevalence of green and ferruginous 

 sands similar to those below. Perhaps they have 

 been derived from the waste of those older' rocks. 

 Mr. Lyell supposes the tertiaries of the London basin 

 1o have been formed from the waste of the second- 

 ary strata of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire. 

 With the tertiary system came into existence, if we 

 may trust the evidence which the earlier strata pre- 

 sent, many races of quadrupeds, some birds, reptiles 

 and fishes, extremely analogous to, though for the 

 most part specifically distinct from, the modern de- 

 nizens of land and water; thousands of corals, shells, 

 Crustacea, &c. which present with living races quite 

 as great analogy as obtains between the tribes of the 

 Atlantic and the Pacific oceans of our day. The 

 general features of land and sea as they now exi.-t 

 began to appear, and there can be no doubt that in 

 a philosophical study of the revolutions of the globe 

 the tertiary era of geology cannot be properly sepa- 

 rated from the existing system of nature." The ter- 

 tiary period, taken in this extended sense, saw the 

 creation and extinction of the mammoth, the mas- 

 todon, the paUeotherium, the fossil rhinoceros and 

 hippopotamus, the dinotherium, the toxodon, and the 

 huge pachyderm of Australia : and next, the creation 

 of all our modern races of animals. 



During the period of the deposition of the tertiary 

 strata, the relations of land and sea were greatly 

 altered in various portions of the globe; in Europe 

 by the rising of the Pyrenees beyond the height they 

 reached after the cretaceous era, and by the uplift- 

 ing of the Alps from the Mediterranean towards 

 Mont Bianc. " In England we may believe the up- 

 ward movement of the southern counties conned ed 

 with the Hampshire axis of elevation, and the Isle 

 of Wight convulsion was ended at an early epoch 

 of the tertiary period. The eastern range of the 

 Alps from Mont Blanc to Vienna is of later date, 

 and may be viewed as the most, marked phenomenon 

 of elevation which accompanied or preceded the 

 dispersion of erratic blocks in Europe.'' 



Besides the alterations thus produced in the rela- 

 tion of the land and the sea, changes have taken 

 place, and are still in progress, from other causes. 

 Rivers bring down vast quantities of the disinte- 

 grated particles of the strata through which they 

 flow, and deposit the sediment at 'their mouths, 

 forming deltas, or low tracts, won as it were particle 

 by particle from the domain of the ocean; on the 

 other hand, the sea itself wears down coasts to a 

 great extent, making vast inroads on the land, and 

 converting the isthmus into an island : sometimes, 

 by the sudden or gradual elevation of a la:ge tract 

 of kind, an inland sea becomes drained, leaving in 

 its place a sandy desert. In the depths themselves 

 there is no rest ; multitudes of zoophytes and testacea 

 there live and die, there their remains accumulate 

 layer upon layer, forming beds of vast thickness, 

 which at a future day may be laid bare, covered with 

 alluvium, and engage the researches of another 

 Cuvier. The chemical action of the atmosphere ; 

 heat and cold, rain and snow, winds, springs, rivers, 

 torrents, the action of the tides ; life, animal and ve- 

 getable; and volcanic agencies, all contribute then- 

 part to alter the surface of the land, and to effect 

 changes in its relative extent to that of the sea, 

 changes which are in reality never stationary, but! 

 impei ceptible as they may seem, in constant pro- 

 gress. 



The deposits of the tertiary period are divided by 

 Mr. Lyell into three series : the oldest, or Eocene, in 

 which there occurs from three to five percent, of 

 existing species of shells ; secondly, the series of the 

 middle age, or Meiocene, averaging 18 per cent, in 

 the occurrence of existing species of shells ; and 

 thirdly, the superficial or Pleiocene deposits, in 

 which the ratio of existing shells is from 40 to 95 

 per cent. 



We trust we shall be pardoned for this brief 

 digression, into which we were led by a desire to 

 show that fossil relics are not all of the same era, and 

 that Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary periods have 

 each their distinguishing characteristics, their own 

 fossil relics ; that on the whole the progression of 

 life has been from the lowest aquatic forms, to forms 

 analogous to those now tenanting the earth, which 

 when they existed in the Eocene, Meiocene, or Pie 

 iocene epoch of the Tertiary period, must have pre- 

 sented to a certain extent the superficial features it 

 at present exhibits, though there were doubtless 

 great modifications in the arrangements of land and 

 water, and in the temperature of given latitudes. 

 We beg to refer our readers to the articles ' Organic 

 Remains ' and ' Geology," in the ' Penuy Cyclopaedia.' 

 The perusal will give additional interest to our de- 

 tails of fossil relies. 



