The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-03-14
ANIMALS GROWING SMALLER.
of the Tertiary Period Monsters
Beside Those of Today.

Compared with their extinct allies of
earlier periods OF the earth's history, it
may be laid down as q general rule that
the large animals OF the present day are
decidedly inferior in point Of size. Dur
ing the later portion of tho tertiary period,
for instance, before the incoming OF tho
glacial epoch, when mammals appear to
have attained their maximum develop
ment, there lived elephants alongside of
which ordinary individuals of the existing
species would have looked almost dwarfs,
while the cave bear aud the cave hyena
attained considerably larger dimensions
than their living representatives, and some
of the saber tnothed tigers must have
been considerably larger than the biggest
African lion or Bengal tiger.
Again, the remains Of red deer, bison
and wild oxen, dlsinterred from the cavern
and other superficial deposits of this coun-
try, indicate animals far superior In size
to their degenerate descendants of the pres
ent day, while come of the extinct pigs
from the Siwalik hills of northern India
might be compared in stature to tapir
rather than to an ordinary wild boar, The
same story is told by reptiles, the giant
tortoise of the Siwalik hills, In spite of its
dimensions having been considerably ex-
aggerated, greatly exceeding In size the
largest living giant tortoise Of either the
Mascarene or the Galapagos islands. The
latter rocks have also yielded the remains
OF a long shouted crocodile, allied to the
gavial of the Ganges, which probably
measured from 90 to 60 feet In length,
whereas it Is doubtful If any existing
member of the order exceeds half the
smaller of these dimensions. IT, moreover,
we took into account totally extinct types.
such as the megatheres and mylodons Of
South America, md coutrasted them with
their nearest living allies-in this instance
the sloths and ant eaters-tbe discrepancy
in size would be still more marked, but
such comparison would scarcely be ana
logous to tine abovel
To every rule there Is, however, an ex-
ception, and there are a few groups of liv-
ing large mammals whose existing mem
bers appear never to have been surpassed
in size by their fossil relatives. Foremost
among these are the whales, which now
appear to include the largest members of
the order which have ever existed. The
so called white or square nouthed rhi-
noceros of South Africa seems also to be
fully equal in size TO any of its extinct an
cestors, and the same is certainly true OF
the giraffe, which may even exceed all Its
predecessors in this respect. Whether
however, the fossil giraffes were or were
not the equals in height of tho largest in
dividuals of the living species, there is no
question but that the latter Is by far the
tallest of all living mammals, and that it
was only rivaled in this respect among ex-
tinct forms by Its aforesaid ancestors.
Moreover, If we exclude creatures like some
of the gigantic dinosaurian reptiles of the
secondary epoch, which, so to speak. gain
cd an unfair advantage as regards height
by sitting up on their hind legs In a kan
garoolike manner, and limit our coInpari-
son to such as walk on all four feet in the
good old fashioned way, we shall find that
giraffes are not only tho tallest mammals,
but likewise the ,allest of all animals that
have ever existed. ed.-Knowledge.