The
South American character of the West Indian mammals seems to
indicate that this archipelago was formerly united to the southern
continent, and that it has subsequently been an area of subsidence.
(7/6. See Dr. Richardson's "Report" page 157; also "L'Institut"
1837 page 253. Cuvier says the kinkajou is found in the larger
Antilles, but this is doubtful. M. Gervais states that the
Didelphis crancrivora is found there. It is certain that the West
Indies possess some mammifers peculiar to themselves. A tooth of a
mastodon has been brought from Bahama; "Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal" 1826 page 395.)
(PLATE 33. MYLODON. Height, 7 feet 6 inches; girth round chest, 6
feet 6 inches; maximum breadth of pelvis, 3 feet 7 inches.)
When America, and especially North America, possessed its
elephants, mastodons, horse, and hollow-horned ruminants, it was
much more closely related in its zoological characters to the
temperate parts of Europe and Asia than it now is. As the remains
of these genera are found on both sides of Behring's Straits and on
the plains of Siberia, we are led to look to the north-western side
of North America as the former point of communication between the
Old and so-called New World.
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