The World Before the Deluge

by Louis Figuier

A new organic creation makes its appearance in the Tertiary period; nearly all the animal life is changed, and what is most remarkable in this new development is the appearance, in larger numbers, of the great class of Mammifera.

During the Primary period, Crustaceans and Fishes predominated in the animal kingdom; in the Secondary period the earth was assigned to Reptiles; but during the Tertiary period the Mammals were kings of the earth; nor do these animals appear in small number, or at distant intervals of time; great numbers of these beings appear to have lived on the earth, and at the same moment; many of them being, so to say, unknown and undescribed.

If we except the Marsupials, the first created Mammals would appear to have been the Pachyderms, to which the Elephant belongs. This order of animals long held the first rank; it was almost the only representative of the Mammal during the first of the three periods which constitute the Tertiary epoch. In the second and third periods Mammals appear of species which have now become extinct, and which were alike curious from their enormous proportions, and from the singularity of their structure. Of the species which appeared during the latter part of the epoch, the greater number still exist. Among the new Reptiles, some Salamanders, as large as Crocodiles, and not very distinct from existing forms, are added to the animal creation during the three periods of the Tertiary epoch. Chelonians were abundant within the British area during the older epoch. During the same epoch Birds are present, but in much fewer numbers than the Mammalia; here songsters, there birds of prey, in other cases domestic—or, rather, some appear to wait the yoke and domestication from man, the future supreme lord of the earth.

The seas were inhabited by a considerable number of beings of all classes, and nearly as varied as those now living; but we no longer find in the Tertiary seas those Ammonites, Belemnites, and Hippurites which peopled the seas and multiplied with such astonishing profusion during the Secondary period. Henceforth the testaceous Mollusca approximate in their forms to those of the present time. The older and newer Tertiary Series contain few peculiar genera. But genera now found in warmer climates were greatly developed within the British area during the earlier Tertiary times, and species of cold climates mark the close of the later Tertiaries.

What occurs to us, however, as most remarkable in the Tertiary epoch is the prodigious increase of animal life; it seems as if it had then attained its fullest extension. Swarms of testaceous Mollusca of microscopic proportions—Foraminifera and Nummulites—must have inhabited the seas, crowding together in ranks so serried that the agglomerated remains of their shells form, in some places, beds hundreds of feet thick. It is the most extraordinary display which has appeared in the whole range of creation.

Vegetation during the Tertiary period presents well-defined characteristics. The Tertiary flora approaches, and is sometimes nearly identical with, that of our days. The class of dicotyledons shows itself there in its fullest development; it is the epoch of flowers. The surface of the earth is embellished by the variegated colours of the flowers and fruits which succeed them. The white spikes of the Gramineæ display themselves upon the verdant meadows without limit; they seem provocative of the increase of Insects, which now singularly multiply. In the woods crowded with flowering trees, with rounded tops, like our oak and birch, Birds become more numerous. The atmosphere, purified and disembarrassed of the veil of vapour which has hitherto pervaded it, now permits animals with such delicate pulmonary organs to live and multiply their race.

During the Tertiary period the influence of the central heat may have ceased to make itself felt, in consequence of the increased thickness of the terrestrial crust. By the influence of the solar heat, climates would be developed in the various latitudes; the temperature of the earth would still be nearly that of our present tropics, and at this epoch, also, cold would begin to make itself felt at the poles.

Abundant rains would, however, continue to pour upon the earth enormous quantities of water, which would give rise to important rivers; new lacustrine deposits of fresh water were formed in great numbers; and rivers, by means of their alluvial deposits, began to form new land. It is, in short, during the Tertiary epoch that we trace an alternate succession of beds containing organic beings of marine origin, with others peculiar to fresh water. It is at the end of this period that continents and seas take their respective places as we now see them, and that the surface of the earth received its present form.

The Tertiary epoch, or series, embraces three very distinct periods, to which the names of Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene have been given by Sir Charles Lyell. The etymology of these names is derived—Eocene, from the Greek ηως, dawn, and καινος, recent; Miocene, from μειον, less, καινος, recent; and Pliocene, from πλειον, more, καινος, recent; by which it is simply meant to express, that each of these periods contains a minor or greater proportion of recent species (of Testacea), or is more or less remote from the dawn of life and from the present time;[81] the expressions are in one sense forced and incorrect, but usage has consecrated them, and they have obtained universal currency in geological language, from their convenience and utility.