European forms on the new continent. The contrast between the Secondary and the Tertiary faunas is enormous and proportionate to the geographical change, but it is not so strongly marked in the floras, which have changed more slowly.
The History of Tertiary Life ends with Man.
The third or Tertiary period is that which more immediately concerns us. In it each life-group is so closely linked to that which went before and followed after, that there is no break of sufficient importance to be used for a starting-point in our special inquiry into the ancient history of man. We shall therefore be compelled to treat in outline the principal changes which took place in this country from the beginning of the Tertiary period down to the time when man first appeared upon the stage, and to see how they are related to the varying conditions of life on the continent.
The Classification of the Tertiary Period.
The Tertiary period in Europe may be divided into six well-defined stages, as I have pointed out in my work on Cave-hunting.
Characteristics. | |
I. Eocene, or that in which the mammalia now on the earth were represented by allied forms belonging to existing orders and families.
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Living orders and families present. |
II. Meiocene, in which the alliance between living and fossil mammals is more close than before.
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Living genera. |
III. Pleiocene, in which living species of mammals appear.
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Living species. |
