existence
at the time of the Noachian Deluge. Hence he applied to it the
name of _Homo diluvii testis_. In reality, however, as shown by
Cuvier, we have here the skeleton of a huge Newt, very closely
allied to the Giant Salamander (_Menopoma maxima_) of Java.

[Illustration: Fig. 240.--Tooth of _Oxyrhina xiphodon_. Miocene.]

[Illustration: Fig. 241.--Tooth of _Carcharodon productus_. Miocene.]

The remains of _Reptiles_ are far from uncommon in the Miocene
rocks, consisting principally of Chelonians and Crocodilians.
The Land-tortoises (_Testudinidoe_) make their first appearance
during this period. The most remarkable form of this group is
the huge _Colossochelys Atlas_ of the Upper Miocene deposits
of the Siwalik Hills in India, described by Dr Falconer and Sir
Proby Cautley. Far exceeding any living Tortoise in its dimensions,
this enormous animal is estimated as having had a length of about
twenty feet, measured from the tip of the snout to the extremity
of the tail, and to have stood upwards of seven feet high. All the
details of its organisation, however, prove that it must have been
"strictly a land animal, with herbivorous habits, and probably
of the most inoffensive nature." The accomplished palaeontologist
just quoted, shows further that some of the traditions of the
Hindoos would render it not improbable that this colossal Tortoise
had survived into the earlier portion of the human period.

Of the _Birds_ of the Miocene period it is sufficient to remark
that though specifically distinct, they belong, so far as known,
wholly to existing groups, and therefore present no points of
special palaeontological interest.

The _Mammals_ of the Miocene are very numerous, and only the more
important forms can be here alluded to. Amongst the _Marsupials_,
the Old World still continued to possess species of Opossum
(_Didephys_), allied to the existing American forms. The _Edentates_
(Sloths, Armadillos, and Ant-eaters), at the present day mainly
South American, are represented by two large European forms. One
of these is the large _Macrotherium giganteum_ of the Upper Miocene
of Gers in Southern France, which appears to hare been in many
respects allied to the existing Scaly Ant-eaters or Pangolins,
at the same time that the disproportionately long fore-limbs would
indicate that it possessed the climbing habits of the Sloths.
The other is the still more gigantic _Ancylotherium Pentelici_
of the Upper Miocene of Pi