EARLY MAMMALS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

EARLY MAMMALS

By J.M.D. (Chriatchurch)

'T'HE Tertiary era is divided into A four period*. They are, from the oldest. Eocene. Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene. The Eocene saw the extinction of the earliest or archaie mammals and the incoming of those of a modern type. L?t us see what archaic mammals looked like. Once more we travel back in time and. I think Wyoming, where we la«=t observed the dinosaurs, is the best place to tarry. Between this

visit and our previous ones 40.000.000 years have elapsed; that is, it is now ti0.000.000 years ago. What a change there is. Where we saw the waters of the deep and long gulf of the Boreal Sea we now pee a mountain range —the primitive Rocky Mountains. Th»re is a rank growth of trees, plants and grass. Meadowy of jrrass and flowers alternate with heavilv-wooded patches. There are many streams and several sum 11 lakes. The warmth of the air, the scent of the flowers, the buzz of insects and the brilliant sunshine combine to make as pleasant a scene a» one could wirdi for.

But what of the life? Gone are the ugly giant reptiles, the hideous flying dragons anil, in fact, all the beasts we saw on our last trip. Xow that we come to look around we realise thai we can see no animals. and we might be tempted to say that there are none living at time—but—'"if Mr. Garth does not find a fox in Eversley Wood that does not prove that there are no such things as foxes.'* So let us move on in search of animals, if any. We walk off away from the mount&iib a.few mile* distant. We

enter a large patch of trees and see our first sign of life, other than insects, a number of birds. They resemble modern ones quite closely, so we continue. Coming out into the sunshine beyond the wood we see a meadow of knee-<leep grass and beyond that a lake. We tramp across towards the lake, and we are quite near the margin when there is a rustle in the grass, and a small animal tries to «lip past us. Quick! Catch it! Good, someone has thrown himself on it and is now holding it up. Gather around and we small examine it. ft is about the size of a cat with a smooth, leathery skin. It is high at the hips and has a long tail. Its head •esemblaa that of a tiny tiger while, ::i.<tead of daws, its toes end in small hoofs. Tt seems slow-witted

but is quite active. It i« no relation of any modern animal, but belongs to the archaic mammals. Its name is pantolambda.

We put it down and allow hundreds, then thousands, then a million years to roll bv.

Tlie scene is now somewhat changed, hut the general seenorv ir the same. Thrmii-h this paisin; time the desci'iident* of pantohimbdn changed in size and appearance. That animal over there, like a small hippotanuu, is the deseeiulent of our friend of a million years before. It is called corvphodon and is quite abundant, as we can see h number of them from where we stand. It also i>» one of the archaic group. Up to 1923 only one fossil tooth of a coryphodon had been found in Asia. Professor H. F. Cfehorne was then on an expedition there, and one day jokingly announced that he was going over to a hill to find a coryphodon tooth. He was back within an hour with the second ever found in Asia. Surely this io the world's

greatest coincidence,