Proboscidea.—These are represented by two species of Mastodon, and two of Dinotherium, an extraordinary extinct form supposed to be, to some extent, intermediate between the elephants and the aquatic manatees (Sirenia.)
Rodentia.—This order is represented by a species of Hystrix, larger than living porcupines.
Edentata.—This order, now almost confined to South America, was represented in the Miocene period by several European species. Ancylotherium and Macrotherium, belonging to an extinct family but remotely allied to the African ant-bear (Orycteropus), occur in Greece.
Birds.—Species of Phasianus and Gallus were found; the latter especially interesting as being now confined to India.
Reptiles.—These are few and unimportant, consisting of a tortoise (Testudo) and a large lizard allied to Varanus.
Summary of the Miocene Fauna of Greece.—Although we cannot consider that the preceding enumeration gives us by any means a complete view of the actual inhabitants of this part of Europe during the later portion of the Miocene period, we yet obtain some important information. The resemblance that appeared in the Pliocene fauna of Europe, to that of the open country of tropical Africa, is now still more remarkable. We not only find great felines, surpassing in size and destructive power the lions and leopards of Africa, with hyænas of a size and in a variety not to be equalled now, but also huge rhinoceroses and elephants, two forms of giraffes, and a host of antelopes, which, from the sample here obtained, were probably quite as numerous and varied as they now are in Africa. Joined with this abundance of antelopes we have the absence of deer, which probably indicates that the country was open and somewhat of a desert character, since there were deer in other parts of Europe at this epoch. The occurrence of but a single species of monkey is also favourable to this view, since a well-wooded country would most likely have supplied many forms of these animals.
Miocene Fauna of Central and Western Europe.
We have now to consider the Miocene fauna of Europe generally, of which we have very full information from numerous deposits of this age in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Hungary.
Primates.—Three distinct forms of monkeys have been found in Europe—in the South of France, in Switzerland, and Wurtemberg; one was very like Colobus or Semnopithecus; the others—Pliopithecus and Dryopithecus—were of higher type, and belonged to the anthropomorphous apes, being nearest to the genus Hylobates or gibbons. Both have occurred in the South of France. The Dryopithecus was a very large animal (equal to the gorilla), and M. Lartet considers that in the character of its dentition it approached nearer to man than any of the existing anthropoid apes.
Insectivora.—These small animals are represented by numerous remains belonging to four families and a dozen genera. Of Erinaceus (hedgehog) several species are found in the Upper Miocene; and in the Lower Miocene of Auvergne two extinct genera of the same family—Amphechinus and Tetracus—have been discovered. Several species of Talpa (mole) occur in the Upper Miocene of France, while the extinct Dinylus is from Germany, and Palæospalax from the Lower Miocene of the Isle of Wight. The Malayan family Tupaiidæ or squirrel-shrews, is believed to be represented by Oxygomphus, a fossil discovered in South Germany (Wiesenau) by H. von Meyer. The Soricidæ or shrews, are represented by several extinct genera—Plesiosorex, Mysarachne and Galeospalax; as well as by Amphisorex and Myogale still living. Echinogale, a genus of Centetidæ now confined to Madagascar, is said to occur in the Lower Miocene of Auvergne, a most interesting determination, if correct, as it would form a transition to the Solenodon of the Antilles belonging to the same family; but I am informed by Prof. Flower that the affinities of the animals described under this name are very doubtful.