Chapter 1685
[←1674]
Geologists tell us that “in the Secondary epoch, the only mammals which have been [hitherto] discovered in Europe are the fossil remains of a small marsupial or pouch-bearer.” (Knowledge, March 31st, 1882, p. 464.) Surely the marsupial or didelphis (the only surviving animal of the family of those which were on Earth during the presence on it of androgyne man) cannot be the only animal that was then on Earth? Its presence speaks loudly for that of other (though unknown) mammals, besides the monotremes and marsupials, and thus shows the appellation of “mammalian age” given only to the Tertiary period to be misleading and erroneous, as it allows one to infer that there were no mammals, but reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fishes alone in the Mesozoic times—the Secondary.