CEANIA OE RUMINANTS FROM THE INDIAN TERTIARIES. 7—94 
which they occur : the presence of these fossils in the Siwaliks in company with 
Chalicotherium and Dorcatherium must induce us to believe that these genera 
originated in India in some part of the Pliocene period, and did not reach Europe 
until the post-tertiary period. The genus Genus seems to have been represented in 
the upper Miocene of Europe, but did nob attain to importance until the Pleistocene 
period ; it belongs to an essentially modern group ; the alHed genus Dorcathermm 
in Europe is confined to the Miocene period, but lived in the Siwalik period of India. 
The genus Gamelus is unknown in a fossil strata except in India, though allied 
forms like Frocamelus occur in the upper tertiaries of America ; the genus is probably 
an essentially modern one. 
The fossil Ruminants of the Indian tertiaries therefore all point very strongly 
to the modern age of the deposits, there being only one exclusively Miocene genus 
among them. Were we to study the Indian tertiaries from this group alone, we 
should be compelled to place the Siwaliks in the upper Pliocene period at the 
earliest ; but this view must be modified by the greater number of Miocene forms 
which we find in other groups of the Mammalia. 
In a former paper on the Fossil Mammalia of India and Burma,' I stated 
that the number of extinct genera of Mammalia in these beds (Siwaliks) is so 
large” that on these grounds we might consider them to be of Miocene age: this 
statement was made from the comparison of the Mammalia fauna of the Indian and 
European later tertiaries, and is true if we confine ourselves to those regions ; if, 
however, we extend our comparisons to the later tertiaries and post-tertiaries of 
America and Australia, we shall find that in the latter countries a vast number 
of extinct mammalian genera are found in strata of Pleistocene age, while in 
Europe aU the genera except Megaeeros from the Pleistocene, and most of those 
from the Pliocene, are still existing on the globe. Thus, in the Pleistocene of America 
we have among others the extinct genera Megatherium, Mylodon, Meg along x, 
Scelidotherium, Glyptodon, and Mastodon ; while in the corresponding strata of 
Australia we have Diprotodon, Nototherium, and Thylacoleo ; again, to take an 
instance from the class of birds, we have in very modern strata in New Zealand, 
Dinornis, Talapteryx, and several others. The proportionate number of extinct 
genera in the Siwaliks cannot therefore be considered as being of any great value in 
determining their age ; the only evidence which tends to place these deposits in the 
Miocene period is the presence of genera characteristic of this period in Europe ; 
their occurrence, however, as I have before said, is to be explained by their later 
survival in India, and its value as evidence is over-balanced by the large percentage 
of strictly modern genera in the Siwaliks. 
The plates in this part all bear the name of the native artist who has executed 
the outlines and a considerable part of the shading ; in many instances, however, 
the finishing touches have been given by Mr. Schaumburg, the Artist to the Geolo- 
gical Survey of India. 
Eec. Geol. Surv. India, Vol. IX, p. 97. 
