The flesh-eaters all belonged to the †Creodonta, and, though rather less diversified than those of the Bridger, were yet relatively abundant. In size, they ranged from little creatures not larger than a weasel up to truly enormous beasts, and differed, no doubt, largely in habits and manner of life. For the most part, the families were the same as those of the Bridger †creodonts, but the genera all were different. The †oxyænids (†Oxyæna) were much smaller and lighter than the large and massive representatives found in the middle Eocene, and their teeth were not so cat-like. Another group of predaceous animals (†Palæonictis) which also inhabited Europe, but did not survive the lower Eocene in either continent, had short, broad and very cat-like heads. The †mesonychids were far larger than those of the Bridger, a departure from the ordinary rule, and the several species of the common Wasatch genus (†Pachyæna) had grotesquely large heads. A family (†Arctocyonidæ), of very extensive geographical range and great antiquity, had its last representatives here in a very curious animal (†Anacodon) which had the flat-crowned, tuberculated grinding teeth of the bears and the enlarged, scimitar-like upper canines of the †sabre-tooth cats. Such a combination seems utterly incongruous and no one would have ventured to predict it. The progressive family of †creodonts (†Miacidæ) was already quite numerously represented, but only by small forms, which must have preyed upon small mammals, birds and lizards.
Two archaic orders of hoofed mammals were fairly numerous. One, the †Condylarthra, comprised quite small, five-toed animals, with long tails and short feet and extremely primitive in structure. A genus (†Phenacodus) of this order was long regarded as being ancestral to most of the higher orders of ungulates, but this belief has proved to be untenable. More numerous were the †Amblypoda, one genus of which (†Coryphodon), though persisting into the Wind River, was especially characteristic of the Wasatch. The †coryphodonts were the largest of lower Eocene mammals, and some of the species equalled a tapir or small rhinoceros in length and height, but had heavier limbs; as the skeleton conclusively shows, these must have been heavy, clumsy and exceptionally ugly brutes, with formidable tusks, large head, but relatively more slender body, short and massive limbs and elephantine feet. In appearance, these strange beasts were not altogether unlike the Hippopotamus and were perhaps more or less amphibious in habits. The other family of †Amblypoda, the †uintatheres, have not yet been registered from the Wasatch, but they will undoubtedly be found there, as they were unquestionably present at that time.
Fig. 141.—†Phenacodus primævus, the best known Wasatch representative of the †Condylarthra. Restored from a skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History.
Fig. 142.—The commonest of Wasatch ungulates, the †amblypod, †Coryphodon testis. Restored from a skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History.
All of the preceding groups were of the archaic, non-progressive type and have long been extinct. With the sole exception of one †creodont family (†Miacidæ) and perhaps some of the insectivores, they have no descendants or representatives in the modern world. All of them appear to have been indigenous and derived from North American ancestors, though it is possible that a few were immigrants. We now turn to the orders which were more significant of the future, because they had within them the potency of a far higher development. These progressive groups were all immigrants, coming to North America from some region which cannot yet be positively identified, but most probably was Asia. From the same region and at a corresponding period of time Europe received many of the same forms, and so many genera were at that time common to the latter continent and North America that a broad and easy way of intermigration must have been open.
One of these immigrant orders, the Rodentia, the most ancient known members of which were these species from the North American Wasatch, was represented by the same family (†Ischyromyidæ) and some of the same genera (†Paramys, †Sciuravus) as throve also in the Bridger stage.