Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-08-18
Descendant of
Prehistoric Animal
Living in S. America

! - L S44AASSA ~ = - . - =
| Living in S. America
/ Chicago. Aug 17.-For $1,000 600
years one of fhe few survivors of the
fossil animals has lived in Businesses
| of what is now South America. Nine
years ago it was discovered by an ex-
petition of the Field Museum of Nat
ural History. The museum has just
/ published it's first scientific report on
! it's find.
Speaking today of his discovery. DR..
Wilfred H. Osgood of the Field Mu-
scum named some of its features:
Through all these ages this animal
has continued reproducing itself with
out important change.
1t is one of the most notable exam
pies of the simple life
All the other animals of it's group
have utterly vanished or been turned
10 stone hundreds of thousands of
years.
1t dates back to the period when
the warm bloo0ed animals were just
| beginning TO evolve from the cold
blooded reptiles. 1t is one of the old
est living mammals.
| Ii is mirror of the past" with
practical value difficult to estimate.
! A little animal. it looks like a
sharp-nosed rat. 1t is only about six
inches long. But its size has helped
to preserve it. 1t has small eyes,
rounded ears, slender tail and soft
brown hair.
Caenolestes is its name-modern
of nf
predatory animals.
DR.. Osgood made his discovery in
Venezuela in 1912 He secured his
specimens in the heart of a dense for
est of the mountains there. Access
to the spot was gained by laboriously
cutting narrow trails for long dis
tances through the heavy under
growth.
! Since then Dr.. Osgood has made an
! intensive study of the animal. and it
is this which the Field Museum has
| just published, in book entitled "A
Monographs Study of the American
Marsupial. Caenolestes.''
This little animal is quite unlike
any other now living in the world"
DR. Osgood said Although it does
not resemble closely any species now
living. it is very intimately related to
animals which dourished far back in
geologic time when the foundations
were being laid for the evolution of
the higher animals of the present day.
All the others of the group to which
it belongs became extinct ages ago
and Caenolestes alone has survived
to the present
we know this because it's bones
and teeth are essentially the same as
those of the extinct animals If the
bones are the same, it is probable that
other parts also are similar There
fore Caenolestes is a prize to the
student, for it enables him to learn
more about the ancient fossils than is
shown by their bones. which of course
are the only parts preserved.
The length of time it has sur
vived is almost incredible. Its extinct
relatives lived in the Miocene period
and this according to good authori-
ties. was about 100000 years ago.
During all this tremendous lapse of
days and nights it has been able to
withstand the competition of nature.
" liAu lOou anu proper conditions OF
temperature. and to care for its young
in other words, to live and repro
duce itself
Its close similarity to the extinct
forms indicates that it has been able
to do this without any serious change
in its physical makeup. The secret of
its success is doubtless to be found in
the simplicity of its requirements. 1t
is one of the most generalizcd of
mammals now living. 1t has never
gone to extremes never developed
any very special tastes or peculiari-
ties. 1t feeds upon insects and isn't
particular whether they are hard or
soft, smooth or woolly.
Three million years ago. in all
probability. its tastes were the same
and insects were just as easy to find
then as now.
One of its assets has been its
small size. l. has seen the giants of
the past come and go while it went
serenely on. 1t never tried any ex-
periments, never went off on tangent,
and never took any chances. BY al
ways taking the easiest and safest
way it accomplished mere existence
and nothing else.
! IF all the early mammals had led
| the same simple life the world now
would not be the sort of place it is
Those that developed along special
lines often found themselves in fatal
difficulties, but some of them took the
lines that have led to the higher
mammals of today. So far as evo-
lutionary progress is concerned.
therefore, perhaps Caenolestes might
as well have ceased to exist millions
of years ago.
! "Caenolestes belongs to the great
marsupials or pouched mammals. but.
although it lives in America, it is not
closely related to the opossums,
which are the only other American