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The extinct Zeuglodon, however, presents us with an intercalary form between the type of the Seals and that of the Whales.
So Owen rechristened the monster Zeuglodon; and in his paper read before the London Geological Society, pronounced it, in substance, one of the most extraordinary creatures which the mutations of the globe have blotted out of existence.
The cetaceans or whales are widely different from all other mammals, but the tertiary Zeuglodon and Squalodon, which have been placed by some naturalists in an order by themselves, are considered by Professor Huxley to be undoubtedly cetaceans, "and to constitute connecting links with the aquatic carnivora."
I obtained evidence, during a short excursion, of so many localities of this fossil animal within a distance of ten miles, as to lead me to conclude that they must have belonged to at least forty distinct individuals. Zeuglodon cetoides, Owen. Basilosaurus, Harlan. Zeuglodon cetoides, Owen. Basilosaurus, Harlan. Wyman and Dr. R.W. Gibbes.
And the publication, in 1864, of M. Van Beneden's memoir on the Miocene and Pliocene Squalodon, furnished much better means than anatomists previously possessed of fitting in another link of the chain which connects the existing Cetacea with Zeuglodon.
And the publication, in 1864, of M. Van Beneden's memoir on the Miocene and Pliocene Squalodon, furnished much better means than anatomists previously possessed of fitting in another link of the chain which connects the existing Cetacea with Zeuglodon.
The mode of origin of the Monodelphia from these is a very difficult problem, for the most part left open by Professor Haeckel. As regards the latter question, I have little doubt that the Sirenia connect the Ungulata with the Proboscidea; and none, that the Cetacea are extremely modified Carnivora. The passage between the Seals and the Cetacea by Zeuglodon is complete.
MARINE MAMMALS. The carnivorous mammals of the sea whales, seals, walruses, etc. seem to have been derived from some of the creodonts of the early Tertiary by adaptation to aquatic life. Whales evolved from some land ancestry at a very early date in the Tertiary; in the marine deposits of the Eocene are found the bones of the Zeuglodon, a whalelike creature seventy feet in length.
In the apparently complete absence of hinder limbs, and in the characters of the vertebral column, the Zeuglodon lies on the cetacean side of the boundary line; so that upon the whole, the Zeuglodonts, transitional as they are, are conveniently retained in the cetacean order.
Above the orbitoidal limestone is a white limestone, sometimes soft and argillaceous, but in parts very compact and calcareous. It contains several peculiar corals, and a large Nautilus allied to N. ziczac; also in its upper bed a gigantic cetacean, called Zeuglodon by Owen.
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