The Washington herald., 1912-04-28

I
Museum of Natural History. in New
York city. which is the greatest ccien
tific institution OF its kind in the world
has brought near to completion col
lection Of the strange mammals, nearl,
all OF them now extinct, that inhabitet
the earth during the period immediately
preceding the first appearance Of man
| Some of them, however, were undoubt
edly contemporary with the earliest hu
man beings-which fact does by NJ
means render them less interesting.
The age OF mammals appears TO have
begun about 100000 years ago. 1t wa;
| then that the earliest known horses. nC
larger than modern foxes, roamed ovel
the plains Of North America. OF thest
there were no fewer than eleven species
-gracefuI, light-Ifmbed creatures. will
brains noticeably large in relation tc
their size, indicating a high degree OF
intelligence. There were also tapirs. moi
much bigger; many kinds Of cats Zone
as large as puma, and another ap-
preaching the jaguar), and a queer look
ing animal of the bigness Of a small
rhinoceros. but unlike anything we
know to-day. with short, clumsy legs
and an abbreviated tail-named by
science the coryphodon.
pc
sible for the finite human mind to grasp.
But a more vivid impression of II is
conveyed by the statement that 100000
years ago the Alps. the Pyrenees, and
the Hlmalayas had not as yet come into
existence. but were level surfaces wash
ed by the sea. In America, since the
close OF that epoch, the region Of the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado has been
always elevated II 600 feet, and the river
has cut its way through solid rock 10
a depth Of nearly mile and quarter.
The disappearance Of the great reptil-
ian dynasties at the close of the epoch
known to geOlogists as the Mesozoic
was coincident with the uplifting Of the
mighty chain previously represented
by a string OF more or less scattered
Islands,, which to-day we know as the
Rocky Mountains. other tremendous
geologic changes occurred at that per-
lod. and resulting notifications Of ell
mate and terrestrial conditions may have
had much I do with the wtping out
OF the amazing and widely differentiated
order OF the Dinosaurs. But doubtless
their wholesale destruction was attribut-
able largely. II not mainly. TO volcanoes,
which distributed their ashes over vast
areas TO a depth OF thousands of feet.
" ndltNtE NdusEs llNOlNEus
giant reptiles disappeared. and were sue
ceeded by new forms of Hfe-that is
to say, by mammals of primitive types.
But II should by no means be supposed
that these were the first mammals. Al
ready there had been mammals on the
earth for a long time. and probably for
at least a million years; but they were
small and OF minor Importance in the
scheme Of creation Many Of them were
others were insect-eaters. They
were natures first experiments in the
of mammalian types.
With the opening Of the age Of NAM
mails began a rapid evolution Of crea-
lures of this class. Contemporary with
the little horses and tapirs in North
America were certain apelike animals
with short faces and large eyes. Also.
there appeared bearlike cats and the
frst Titanotheres-an order destined
ater on TO become Of conspicuous and
dominant Importance.
Finding conditions favorable TO their
with an unlimited food
supply, some Of the animals Of that
epoch attained huge size. Those Of them
hat were vegetable feeders. browsing on
he foliage of trees anad shrubs. were
clumsy and eavy-limbed-as. for eX-
ample. the uintatherium, nearly as big
Is a modern rhinoceros. with four horns.
Like the coryphodon. already mentioned,
I has no representatives in the world
o-day. and the same may be said of
he palaeosyops (distantly related TO
he rhinoceros). which was Of the big
less Of a small pony.
One Of the most remarkable Of the
was the brontotherium, ap-
,roaching an elephant IN size, and rep
nF
which soon became the dominant NAM
nails of Western America. Accompany |
nE them, and doubtless preying upon |
hem, were carnivores as big as modern
,odiak bears, and gigantic cats-both OF
antilles destined to extinction later on. |
here were giant pigs, and during this |
eriod appeared the first true dogs.
1t Is now that the rhinoceroses begin |
D appear and to develop a great variety |
( species. In fact, from this time on |
Until comparatively recent days they |
ssume great Importance both in the 4
few World and the Old. Some have
ong legs, and others surprisingly short 1
egs; some are aquatic, and others yet 4
re dwarfs in size. Giant pigs on stIlt-
d legs appear in Europe and Asia, and
/ Africa become conspicuous the mighty
OF nearly the bulk OF an \
lephant, with enormous shsrp-pointed, |
horns over the
nout and a smaller pair above the eyes.
his remarkable creature, short-necked.
,nd-legged, and of grazing habit seems
} be confined to the Dark Continent,
'hich as yet has no land connection
18th Europe or Asia.
Meanwhile the ancestors of all the
lephants are developing IN Africa.
Lany new kinds of dogs appear, some
hort-faced and others lonR-faced |
horses Craze in herds in
outh Dakota and Nebraska The
rowsing, sluggish animals diminish in
umbers everywhere. and are replaced
Y grazing mammals swifter of foot |
amels arrive on the scene in America
)me of them small and delicate-Iimbed,
lille others are huge and bulky II is
serious question whether the extinction
the tftanotheres was not brought
bout mainly by this great muItiplica-
on of herbivores, which ate their food
nd starved them out.
We know that horses originated in
merica, later became extinct on this
'ntinent. and were reintroduced from
urope by the Spaniards less than four
.nturies ago. 1t was much the same ,
ay with camels, which 500, 900 years ago ,
ere the most conspicuous and numerous ,
limals Of the Great Plains, browsing :
countless herds over vast areas des- Z
ned in later. times to be occupied by
e buffalo. The very early cameis, how !
Ter, were no bigger than cottontail rab-
Is: but, steadily gaining in size, the q
rgest species came greatly to exceed
e modern camels in bulk and stature, > >
lie of these, the giraffe camel" stand
g over twelve feet high.