It is much clearer that the mammals were a product of the Permian
revolution. They not only abound throughout the Jurassic, in which they
are distributed in more than thirty genera, but they may be traced into
the Triassic itself. Both in North America and Europe we find the
teeth and fragments of the jaws of small animals which are generally
recognised as mammals. We cannot, of course, from a few bones deduce
that there already, in the Triassic, existed an animal with a fully
developed coat of fur and an apparatus, however crude, in the breast for
suckling the young. But these bones so closely resemble the bones of the
lowest mammals of to-day that this seems highly probable. In the latter
part of the long period of cold it seems that some reptile exchanged its
scales for tufts of hair, developed a four-chambered heart, and began
the practice of nourishing the young from its own blood which would give
the mammals so great an ascendancy in a colder world.
Nor can we complain of any lack of evidence connecting the mammal with a
reptile ancestor. The earliest remains we find are of such a nature that
the highest authorities are still at variance as to whether they should
be classed as reptilian or mammalian. A skull and a fore limb from
the Triassic of South Africa (Tritylodon and Theriodesmus) are in
this predicament. It will be remembered that we divided the primitive
reptiles of the Permian period into two great groups, the Diapsids and
Synapsids (or Theromorphs). The former group have spread into the
great reptiles of the Jurassic; the latter have remained in comparative
obscurity. One branch of these Theromorph reptiles approach the mammals
so closely in the formation of the teeth that they have received the
name "of the Theriodonts", or "beast-toothed" reptiles. Their teeth are,
like those of the mammals, divided into incisors, canines (sometimes
several inches long), and molars; and the molars have in some cases
developed cusps or tubercles. As the earlier remains of mammals which
we find are generally teeth and jaws, the resemblance of the two groups
leads to some confusion in classifying them, but from our point of view
it is not unwelcome. It narrows the supposed gulf between the reptile
and the mammal, and suggests very forcibly the particular branch of the
reptiles to which we may look for the ancestry of the mammals. We cannot
say that these Theriodont reptiles were the ancestors of the mammals.
But we may conclude with some confidence that they bring us near to the
point of origin, and probably had at least a common ancestor with the
mammals.
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