Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-06
ACCIDENT REVEALS
EXTINCT mammal
Skull of Creature Living TO-
100000 Years Ago Brought
Up by Drill.
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY.


Through a curious accident an ex-
tinct mammal, of a species hitherto
unknown to science. has just come to
the National Museum
It was q FLOODED, inSect-eating
creature which lived approximately
70 900 600 years ago This was in the
age of the great dinosaurs, when the
mammal race, from which man is the
final derivation, had Just begun to exist
on earth. Nearly all the mammals Of
that day were about the size Of mice.
This creature was as big as a house
cat. and is one Of the largest warm
blooded creatures which appeared on
earth over a period Of many million
years.
Brought Up by Drill.
The skull was brought up by an oil
we'll drill. from a depth OF 2,460 feet, in
Caddo Parish, La. 1t was entirely sur
rounded by stony formation, which
was broken by the drill, revealing some
teeth. Sent to the National Museum,
these teeth were identified by DR.. James
w. Gidley as belonging to the extinct
family of periptychidae, but Of new
species Most of this family lived in the
next geological age, when the great din
osaurS were dying and the little man.
mails were securing their mastery of
the earth. The largest the pterysticuS,
was as large as a shepherd dog.
Although true mammals. DR.. 0idley
says. the periptychidae were extremely
primitive and completely disappeared
from the earth In the tertiary geologi-
cal period while other families were in
creasing their size. They were like no
family of animals on earth today. Prob
ably they left no near relatives.
Lived on Insects.
The teeth Of the little animal whose
skull was found almost half-mile be-
low the surface. show clearly, DR.. Gidley
SAYS, that 1t lived chiefly on insects.
Other details of Its structure show,
however that 1t was not even remotely
related to those animals which became
ancestors OF the insect eaters Of the
present from which man presumably Is
derived through the bats, lemurs and
monkeys.
The structure Of the teeth enables
Dr. Gidley to reconstruct something of
the creatures life habits. He has long
sharp, we'll developed canine tooth
which could only have been used to tear
away the bark of trees or dig into rotten
wood In search of insects. Presumably
he was dweller In the great ere
tacious swamps the drying up of which
brought an end TO the wallowing din
CsaurS. while the smaller, warm blooded
creatures, which had become adapted
to living out of the mud and were suf-
ficiently small and active to climb the
trees, found the climatic change bene-
tlcial.
Sheds Light on Past.
The tiny skull now at the museum Is
considered worth its weight in gold be-
cause of the new light it sheds on the
life of the distant past. Ordinarily
the mammals were so small and their
bones so delicate that no traces OF
them now can be found. in distinction
to the heavy reptiles who sank in the
mud when they died. The mud changed
into stone as the drying-up process
continued and the fossils were pre-
served. 1t was only by rare accident
that a mammal body became covered
with mud. Those that remained on the
surface were scattered by wind and
weather.
Doubtless. DR.. Gidley says, there
were vast numbers Of creatures in that
day of which the world knows nothing.
including the ancestors of many OF the
present forms.