of the legs and thighs, and every connecting
portion of the extremities, were found set together
precisely as I had arranged them, before my
conjectures were verified by the discovery of the
parts entire : in short, each species was, as it
were, reconstructed from a single one of its
component elements.” (Cuvier’s Ossemens Fossiles,
1812, tom. iii. Introduction, p. 3, 4.)
Thus, by placing before his readers the
progress of his discovery, and restorations of
unknown species and genera, in the same
irregular succession in which they occurred to
him, he derives from this disorder the strongest
demonstration of the accuracy of the principles
which formed his guide throughout the whole
enquiry ; the last found fragments confirming
the conclusions he had drawn from those first
brought to light, and his retrograde steps being
as nothing, in comparison with his predictions
which were verified.
Discoveries thus conducted, demonstrate the
constancy of the laws of co-existence that have
ever pervaded all animated nature, and place
these extinct genera in close connexion with the
living orders of Mammalia.
Wo may estimate the number of the animals
collected in the gypsum of Mont Martre, from
the fact, stated by Cuvier, that scarcely a block
is taken from these quarries which does not
disclose some fragment of a fossil skeleton.
Millions of such bones, he adds, must have been
destroyed, before attention was directed to the
subject.
The subjoined list of fossil animals found in
the gypsum quarries of the neighbourhood of
Paris, affords important information as to the
population of this first lacustrine portion of the
tertiary series.* (See PI. 1 . Figs. 73 to 96.)
* List of V ertebral A nimals found in the G ypsum
of the Basin of P a r is .
Pachydermata■
Carnivora
Palseotherium..................j
Anoplotherium ................L Extinct species, of
Cheropotamus.................f extinct genera.
Adapis................................J
Bat. I
{Large Wolf, differing from any
existing species.
Fox.
Coatis (Nasua, Storr), large Coati, now
native of the warm parts of America.
Racoon (Procyon, Storr), North America.
Genette (Genetta, Cuv., Viverra Genetta,
Linn.), now extending from South of
Europe to Cape of Good Hope.
Marsupialia.. ƒ Opossum, small (Didelphis, Linn.), allied to
\ the Opossum of North and South America.
Rodentia . . . f Dormouse (Myoxus,Gm.), two small species.
\Squirrel (Sciurus).
f Birds, nine or ten species, referrible to the
Extinct species belonging to existing genera.
jgjpjg J following genera : Buzzard, Owl, Quail,
Woodcock, Sea-Lark (Tringa), Curlew,
1
and Pelican.
Reptiles ___ ƒ Fresh-water Tortoises, Trionyx, Emys.
\Crocodile.
Fishes............ Seven extinct species, of extinct Genera. Agass.