. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 67. Young Native Bear or Koala; an expert tree climber, though rather slow of movement. I'lioto. (i. ('. Clutton. animal class has its modest beginning, mostly in the distant geological past. Thus the earliest mammals were pro- bably insect-eaters, and were provided with sharp needle-like teeth, adapted for piercing the integument of insects and the bodies of worms. But as time went on these primitive mammals branched out in vari- ous directions and occupied dif- ferent "spheres of intiuence," each gro
. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 67. Young Native Bear or Koala; an expert tree climber, though rather slow of movement. I'lioto. (i. ('. Clutton. animal class has its modest beginning, mostly in the distant geological past. Thus the earliest mammals were pro- bably insect-eaters, and were provided with sharp needle-like teeth, adapted for piercing the integument of insects and the bodies of worms. But as time went on these primitive mammals branched out in vari- ous directions and occupied dif- ferent "spheres of intiuence," each group becoming adapted for a specialised mode of life. Thus some took to the vrater and became modified for an aquatic existence, others got the habit of climbing trees and became arboreal like the squirrels or the native bear, still others be- came burrowers. Others again ac(|uired long legs and became swift runners, like the northern wolf or the Tasmanian tiger. "With these changes in the mode of progression were associated changes in the teeth and the digestive system. Animals which live on grass have the grinding type of teeth with broad crowns, like tliose of the horse and the cow, while the flesh- eating animals, carnivores like the wolf and the lion, have long, sharp teeth with which to grasp their prey, and cut- ting teeth to tear the flesh from the bones of their victims. Before mam- mals had become the dominant race, the reptiles, which were then the lords of ci-oation, had developed in just the same manner, and in just the same directions as the mammals of to-day. There were grass-eating reptiles, which occupied the place of the herbivorous mammals, there Avere carnivorous reptiles, the lions and tigers of their day, huge reptiles wal- lowed in primeval rivers like the present- day hippoiDotamus, and still others roam- ed the ocean like our whales and dol- phins. In this connection one may say with truth that nature abhors a vacuum and fills it with such material a
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