Zöology; a textbook for colleges and universities . moreoften called Tertiary, - - the age of mammals. Thisoccupied three or four millions of years only, but itsaw the development of the strictly modern fauna andflora. The mammals, which had remained insignificantand apparently not very numerous for millions of years,got a new start. Before very long they produced suchan array of new types that we wonder where these couldhave been developing. Undoubtedly, both in the caseof the mammals early in the Tertiary and the floweringplants in the Mesozoic, the apparently sudden exuber-ance of developme
Zöology; a textbook for colleges and universities . moreoften called Tertiary, - - the age of mammals. Thisoccupied three or four millions of years only, but itsaw the development of the strictly modern fauna andflora. The mammals, which had remained insignificantand apparently not very numerous for millions of years,got a new start. Before very long they produced suchan array of new types that we wonder where these couldhave been developing. Undoubtedly, both in the caseof the mammals early in the Tertiary and the floweringplants in the Mesozoic, the apparently sudden exuber-ance of development must be partly illusory. Prepa-rations for these brilliant displays on the stages ofEurope and America must have been going on behindthe scenes, - - that is to say, in parts of the worldwhence we have no fossils of the periods day new light will be thrown on these matters,- perhaps in the far north, or in that great Antarcticcontinent which, though now covered with ice, oncesupported luxuriant vegetation. THE HISTORY OF LIFE 155. Photograph from Am. Mus. Natural History FIG. 30. Skeleton of Patriojelis Jcrox, Marsh. A large carnivorous creodont mam-mal from the lower Tertiary (Bridger Eocene) of western North America.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1920
