With them are ancestral forms of Edentates (sloths,
etc.) and Insectivores (moles, etc.), side-branches developing
according to their special habits; and before the end of the
Eocene we find primitive Rodents (squirrels, etc.) and
Cheiroptera (bats).
From the description of the Tertiary world which we have seen in
the last chapter we understand the rapid evolution of the
herbivorous Condylarthra. The rich vegetation which spreads over
the northern continents, to which they have penetrated, gives
them an enormous vitality and fecundity, and they break into
groups, as they increase in number, adapted to the different
conditions of forest, marsh, or grass-covered plain. Some of
them, swelling lazily on the abundant food, and secure for a time
in their strength, become the Deinosaurs of their age, mere
feeding and breeding machines. They are massive, sluggish,
small-brained animals, their strong stumpy limbs terminating in
broad five-toed feet. Coryphodon, sometimes as large as an ox, is
a typical representative. It is a type fitted only for prosperous
days, and these Amblypoda, as they are called, will disappear as
soon as the great carnivores are developed.
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