Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/629

Rh But the Condylarthra were also ancestors of a still more important line of mammals. A remarkable type of quadrupeds known as lemurs at present inhabits Madagascar and some parts of Africa and Malaysia. These creatures, known by the Germans as Halbaffen, or half-apes, present a curious combination of the characters of monkeys and carnivora of the raccoon pattern. They could easily have stood in the position of parents to the monkeys in general; and suspicions to this effect have been abundantly confirmed by the discovery of numerous representatives of the sub-order Lemuroidea in the Eocene beds of both Europe and North America. And these again have been traced as certainly to the Condylarthra as ancestors, so that this group is again proved to be the ancestor of man as well as of the hoofed animals. And here was fulfilled another prophecy made by the writer, along with the one already mentioned, viz., that the ancestor of man also, would be found to be a "pentadactyle plantigrade bunodont."

An especial point of interest in the phylogeny of man has been brought to light in our North American beds. There are some things in the structure of man and his nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, orang, etc., that lead us to suspect that they have not descended directly from true monkeys, but that they have rather come from some extinct type of lemurs. Lemurs, which fulfill this anticipation, have been found in our Eocene beds, and belong to a peculiar genus which bears the name of Anaptomorphus. These creatures have a dentition more like that of the anthropoid apes than any living lemur

 (Anaptomorphus homunculus) (Cope). Natural size, except Fig. d, which is four thirds natural size. (From the Eocene of Wyoming.

exhibits. They had the most acute senses of sight and hearing, if we may judge from the bony parts which surrounded those organs. They also had larger brains than those of any other mammal of their period, though they did not differ much in this respect from the existing