The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals; Mammals
at least the existing Carnivora, Insectivora, Artiodactyla, and
Perissodactyla. These were the Creodonta and the Ungulate Condylarthra. In
addition to these we may enumerate as very early types the Lemuroidea,
represented by such forms as _Indrodon_ in the New World, and (though
later) by _Necrolemur_, etc., in the Old World, and the Edentata, if we are
to allow as their ancestors the Ganodonta.
The early Eocene strata also contain representatives of at least one order,
the Amblypoda, which increased subsequently, but has died out without
descendants, unless we are to believe with some that the Elephants are to
be derived from these Eocene "pachyderms." In later Eocene times the great
majority of the existing orders, and even subdivisions of orders, are to be
met with; and there are in addition such totally extinct orders as the
Typotheria, Ancylopoda, and Tillodontia. Coupled with this gradual
specialisation in the orders of Eutherian mammals, there is naturally a
vast increase in the number of generic and family types. This culminates
perhaps in the Miocene, from which time there has been a gradual decline in
mammalian variety, so that it is justly said that we live now in an epoch
which is impoverished of mammals. This gradual decay has persisted until
to-day, as is witnessed by the extinction of the Rhytina and the Quagga,
and the growing rarity of the White Rhinoceros and the American Bison.
The early Eutherian stock consisted of small mammals with small heads and
slender, long tails. The limbs were pentadactyle, ensheathed in claws or
broader hoofs. The fore-limbs may have been partly prehensile. The teeth
were forty-four, completely differentiated into incisors, canines, molars,
and premolars; and there appears to have been a complete diphyodontism. The
canines were not greatly enlarged, and no diastema separated any of the
teeth. The molars were bunodont or of a more cutting pattern, with some
five or six tubercles. These animals were, moreover, very small-brained.
This early stock is represented by Creodont and Condylarthrous animals, the
exact boundaries between which are hardly marked in the {103} very early
types. Professor Osborn has argued that from this early Eutherian stock
there were two waves of progress, or, as he expresses it, "two great
centres of functional radiation."[51]
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