Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/112

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84
EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN.
[CHAP. IV.

intermediate in the structure of its feet and teeth between the common horse and the hipparion, may perhaps indicate that Pleiocenes of the Val d'Arno belong to a later stage of evolution than those of Auvergne, in which the Hipparion is discovered unaccompanied by its descendant the horse. The third is a deer (Cervus dicranios of Nesti), with antlers so complicated that they almost defy description (See Fig. 16). The view that these strata are of a later age than those of Auvergne is rendered probable by the fact that a rhinoceros (R. etruscus) and an elephant, identified by Dr. Falconer in the former, are not known to be present in the latter. Two kinds of monkeys, allied to the macaque of Barbary,[1] lived in the forests of the Val d'Arno, and two kinds of beavers inhabited the streams.

Fig. 16.—Cervus dicranios, Nesti, Val d'Arno, 1/32.

Pleiocene Mammalia in Britain.

This rich and varied mammalian fauna is represented very scantily by the water-worn fragments in the English Pleiocenes; among which may be recognised the

  1. Macacus florentinus. Cocchi, Aulaxinus Bolettino Geologico, 3 and 4. March and April 1872. Act. Soc. Ital. des Sc. Nat. xv. 1872.