[CHAPTER XIX.]

FOSSIL MAMMALIA.

The remains of Mammalia discovered in a fossil state include an immense number of species, and furnish examples of almost every living genus, and of numerous genera, and even orders, of which no existing species are known. Yet amidst the vast accumulations of the skeletons of the higher orders of vertebrata contained in the tertiary deposits, and in the superficial drift, belonging to species which have successively appeared on the surface of our planet, flourished for indefinite periods of time, and then become annihilated, no vestiges of Man, or of his works, have been detected. Human skeletons, naturally imbedded, have hitherto only been observed in the silt of modern alluvial plains,[729] in peat-bogs (Wond. p. 64), and in conglomerates of recent date, such as are in the progress of formation on the sea-shores, particularly where the water is loaded with the detritus of shells and corals, and the waves transport the calcareous matter along the margins of creeks and bays, or deposit it in the shallows along the coast (see Wond. p. 87, and Petrif. p. 483).

[729] There seems, however, reason to believe that the human skulls and bones found with elephantine and other remains in the Alps of Swabia, are of contemporaneous origin with these extinct mammals. (See Literary Gazette, 1853, p. 1027.)

The geological distribution of fossil mammalia,[730]—the occurrence of the entire carcases of extinct species of Elephant and Rhinoceros in blocks of ice (Wond. p. 151),—of recent species in the superficial alluvial clay and silt,—of recent and extinct forms in the Drift or Pleistocene deposits (Wond. p. 147),—of the gradual preponderance of unknown species and genera, in proportion as we carry back our retrospect to the most ancient Tertiary strata (Wond. p. 254), —the sudden disappearance of all vestiges of the entire Class of Mammalia, with the last bed of the Eocene deposits,—with the exception of a few minute jaws in one set of beds of the Oolite in England (Wond. p. 510), and of a few teeth in the Trias (?) of Germany,[731] the sole records of the existence of any of the highest types of animal organization throughout the vast periods of the secondary formations—are so fully treated of in the Wonders of Geology, that I need not dwell upon the subject in the present volumes. Neither is it desirable to enter at large upon this department of Palæontology, for it were vain to attempt the elucidation of the anatomical characters of but one extinct species of Mammalia, without giving details of structure, that could only be successfully demonstrated in a work expressly devoted to the subject. Referring, therefore, to Cuvier’s Ossemens Fossiles, and to Professor Owen’s "History of the British Fossil Mammalia," 8vo. 1846, I must limit my remarks on the Fossil Mammalia to a brief summary of modern discoveries, with suggestions for the identification and collection of some of the most interesting or prevalent remains.

[730] For a notice of the distribution of mammalian remains in the Upper Tertiaries of Europe, see Phillips’s Geology, 1853, vol. i. p. 45, &c.

[731] For an account of these teeth of small insectivorous mammals from the "bone-bed" of Würtemberg, which has an analogous position at the top of the Trias with the "bone-bed" of Axmouth and Aust Cliff, see Ly. p. xiv. figs. 529-531.

The fossil remains of Mammalia will be considered under the following heads:—

I.[Cetacea], or animals of the Whale tribe.
II.[Ruminantia]; including the Camel, Giraffe, Deer, Sheep, Ox, &c.
III.[Pachydermata]; comprising the Proboscideans, as the Elephant, and the ordinary Pachyderms, as the Rhinoceros, Horse, Swine, &c.
IV.[Edentata]: animals without teeth, or with only molars, as the Ant-eater, Sloth, Megatherium, Mylodon, &c.
V.[Rodentia], or Gnawers; as the Hare, Beaver, Rat, &c.
VI.[Marsupialia]; animals with an abdominal pouch, as the Kangaroo, Opossum, &c.
VII.[Carnivora]; including the Bats, Moles, and the carnivorous tribes in general.
VIII.[Quadrumana]; Apes and Monkeys.
IX.[Bimana]; or Man.

FOSSIL WHALES.