From this summary review of the evolution of the Ungulates we must now
pass to an even briefer account of the evolution of the Carnivores. The
evidence is less abundant, but the characters of the Carnivores consist
so obviously of adaptations to their habits and diet that we have little
difficulty in imagining their evolution. Their early Eocene ancestors,
the Creodonts, gave rise in the Eocene to forms which we may regard as
the forerunners of the cat-family and dog-family, to which most of our
familiar Carnivores belong. Patriofelis, the "patriarchal cat," about
five or six feet in length (without the tail), curiously combines
the features of the cat and the seal-family. Cyonodon has a wolf-like
appearance, and Amphicyon rather suggests the fox. Primitive weasels,
civets, and hyaenas appear also in the Eocene. The various branches of
the Carnivore family are already roughly represented, but it is an age
of close relationships and generalised characters.
In the Miocene we find the various groups diverging still further from
each other and from the extinct stocks. Definite wolves and foxes abound
in America, and the bear, civet, and hyaena are represented in Europe,
together with vague otter-like forms. The dog-family seems to have
developed chiefly in North America. As in the case of the Ungulates,
we find many strange side-branches which flourished for a time, but are
unknown to-day. Machoerodus, usually known as "the sabre-toothed tiger,"
though not a tiger, was one of the most formidable of these transitory
races. Its upper canine teeth (the "sabres") were several inches in
length, and it had enormously distensible jaws to make them effective.
The great development of such animals, with large numbers of hyaenas,
civets, wolves, bears, and other Carnivores, in the middle and later
Tertiary was probably the most effective agency in the evolution of
the horse and deer and the extinction of the more sluggish races. The
aquatic branch of the Carnivores (seals, walruses, etc.) is little
represented in the Tertiary record. We saw, however, that the most
primitive representatives of the elephant-stock had also some characters
of the seal, and it is thought that the two had a common origin.
The Moeritherium was a marsh-animal, and may very well have been cousin
to the branch of the family which pushed on to the seas, and developed
its fore limbs into paddles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account