. The chain of life in geological time [microform] : a sketch of the origin and succession of animals and plants. Paleontology; Paleobotany; Paléontologie; Paléobotanique. THE REIGN OF MAMMALS. 221 hollow-horned ruminants appear for the first time in America in the Lower Pliocene; and no ancestry has so far been at- tempted to be traced for them. The antelopes of this group, as well as the gigantic Sivatherium of India,^ allied to the modern prong-horned antelope of North America, were pro- minent in the Old World in the Miocane, A very noteworthy and specially American group of mammals is tha
. The chain of life in geological time [microform] : a sketch of the origin and succession of animals and plants. Paleontology; Paleobotany; Paléontologie; Paléobotanique. THE REIGN OF MAMMALS. 221 hollow-horned ruminants appear for the first time in America in the Lower Pliocene; and no ancestry has so far been at- tempted to be traced for them. The antelopes of this group, as well as the gigantic Sivatherium of India,^ allied to the modern prong-horned antelope of North America, were pro- minent in the Old World in the Miocane, A very noteworthy and specially American group of mammals is that of the Edentates^ the Sloths and Ant-eaters, a group which h priori wt should hj've supposed would have been one of the earliest in time. They appear, however, first in the Miocene, without even any suggested ancestry, and are repre- sented from the first by large species, though they attain their. Fig. 177.—OreodoK major. A generalised Miocene ruminant, with affinities to the Deer, Camel, and Hog. Greatly reduced.—After Leidy. grandest stature in the Megatherium and Mylodon of the Post- Pliocene (Figs. 178, 179), which were sloths of so gigantic size that they must have pulled down trees to feed on their leaves, unless, indeed, there were trees equally colossal for them to climb. But before the modern time, like the American horses, the larger herbivorous forms suddenly disappear, and are now represented only by a few diminutive South American species, which can scarcely, by any stretch of imagination, be supposed to be descendants of their gigantic predecessors. The history of these animals, like those of the great Tertiary marsupials ot Australia and the many Miocene elephants of India, affords a 1 See Frontispiece to this Chapter,. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Dawson, J. W. (Jo
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