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IV.—The Geological Development, Descent and Distribution of the Mammalia1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Karl A. von Zittel
Affiliation:
University of Munich.

Extract

In a spirited treatise on the ‘Origin of our Animal World’ Prof. L. Rütimeyer, in the year 1867, described the geological development and distribution of the mammalia, and the relationship of the different faunas of the past with each other and with that now existing. Although, since the appearance of that masterly sketch the palæontological material has been, at least, doubled through new discoveries in Europe and more especially in North and South America, this unexpected increase has in most instances only served as a confirmation of the views which Rutimeyer advanced on more limited experience. At present, Africa forms the only great gap in our knowledge of the fossil mammalia; all the remaining parts of the world can show materials more or less abundantly, from which the course followed by the mammalia in their geological development can be traced with approximate certainty.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1893

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Footnotes

1

Translated, with the permission of the author, by Dr. G. J. Hinde, V.P.G.S., etc., from the German, Aus den Sitzungsberichten der mathematisch-physikalischen Classe der k. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss. 1893. Bd. xxiii. Heft. II. pp. 137—198. The present treatise forms the concluding chapter of the 4th volume of the author's Handbook of Palaeontology, Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1893.

References

page 401 note 2 Rütimeyer L. Ueber die Herkunft unserer Thierwelt. Eine zoogeographische Skizze. Basel. 1867.Google Scholar

page 404 note 1 Lemoine, V. Étude d'ensemble sur les dents des Mammifères fossiles des environs de Reims. Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, 1891, 3 ser. xix. pp. 263290.Google Scholar

page 404 note 2 Cope, E. D., Synopsis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco Series. Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1888, xvi.Google Scholar

page 405 note 1 The forms thus marked (†) are known only from the Bohnerz of Switzerland; those printed in thick type are the specially characteristic and most numerously represented genera.

page 407 note 1 Die eocäne Säugethierwelt von Egerkingen. Abh. Schweiz. palaon. Gesellsoh, 1891, Bd. xviii.

page 407 note 2 The Genera most numerously represented are printed in thick type.

page 409 note 1 The genera occurring in the Phosphate-beds only are marked with a *, those in the Swiss Bohnerz only with †; those present both in the Phosphorites and the Bohnerz with *†. To the genera also occurring in the Oligocene an (O.), and to those in the Lower Miocene an (M.) is affixed. The specially abundant or characteristic genera are printed in thick type.

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