Principles of Geology, Or, the Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ...life? The answer seems to be, that the more highly organised placentals were never able to gain access to Australia since it emerged from beneath the sea. It is certain that the marsupial fauna of that continent is of great antiquity, for when we examine the bone-caves and superficial alluvium of that part of the world, we find in them, as in formations of corresponding age in Europe, the remains of extinct quadrupeds; but, instead of being referable to the placental class, as in the Old World, the Australian fossils consist of lost species of kangaroo, wombat, thylacine, and other marsupials. One of these, the Diprotodon of Owen, allied to the kangaroo, is of the size of a large rhinoceros; another, Nototherium of Owen, not much inferior in bulk. They are associated with extinct species of Dasyurus, besides many of smaller dimensions, such as Phalangers and Potoroos. In like manner, when we turn to the geological records of South America, we find among the fossil remains of an age immediately antecedent to the present, entombed in cavern and alluvial deposits, the skeletons of Megatherium, Megalonyx, Glyptodon, Mylodon, Toxodon, and Macrauchenia, extinct forms generically allied to the existing sloth, armadillo, cavy, capybara, and lama. In the caves also of Brazil we meet with extinct monkeys associated with the above, and they are referable to the genera Cebus and Callithrix, both belonging to the Platyrrhine or New-World type of quadrumana before mentioned. Thirdly, if we turn to the Europseo-Asiatic and African province--a region which comprises Europe, Asia, and the north of Africa--geology teaches us, in like manner, that where the rein-deer, musk-ox, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, and many other Old-World types now prevail, ..