The Urantia Book
PAPER 61
THE MAMMALIAN ERA ON URANTIA
Sponsored by a Resident Life Carrier.
61:0.1 THE era of mammals extends from the
times of the origin of placental mammals to the end of the ice
age, covering a little less than fifty million years.
61:0.2 During this Cenozoic age the world's
landscape presented an attractive appearance -- rolling hills,
broad valleys, wide rivers, and great forests. Twice during this
sector of time the Panama Isthmus went up and down; three times
Bering Strait land bridge did the same. The animal types were
both many and varied. The trees swarmed with birds, and the
whole world was an animal paradise, notwithstanding the
incessant struggle of the evolving animal species for supremacy.
61:0.3 The accumulated deposits of the five
periods of this fifty-million-year era contain the fossil
records of the successive mammalian dynasties and lead right up
through the times of the actual appearance of man himself.
1. THE NEW CONTINENTAL LAND STAGE
THE AGE OF EARLY MAMMALS
61:1.1 50,000,000 years ago the land
areas of the world were very generally above water or only
slightly submerged. The formations and deposits of this period
are both land and marine, but chiefly land. For a considerable
time the land gradually rose but was simultaneously washed down
to the lower levels and toward the seas
61:1.2 Early in this period and in North
America the placental type of mammals suddenly appeared,
and they constituted the most important evolutionary development
up to this time. Previous orders of nonplacental mammals had
existed, but this new type sprang directly and suddenly
from the pre-existent reptilian ancestor whose descendants had
persisted on down through the times of dinosaur decline. The
father of the placental mammals was a small, highly active,
carnivorous, springing type of dinosaur.
61:1.3 Basic mammalian instincts began to be
manifested in these primitive mammalian types. Mammals possess
an immense survival advantage over all other forms of animal
life in that they can:
1. Bring forth relatively mature and
well-developed offspring.
2. Nourish, nurture, and protect
their offspring with affectionate regard.
3. Employ their superior brain power
in self-perpetuation.
4. Utilize increased agility in
escaping from enemies.
5. Apply superior intelligence to
environmental adjustment and adaptation.
61:1.4 45,000,000 years ago the
continental backbones were elevated in association with a very
general sinking of the coast lines. Mammalian life was evolving
rapidly. A small reptilian, egg-laying type of mammal
flourished, and the ancestors of the later kangaroos roamed
Australia. Soon there were small horses, fleet-footed
rhinoceroses, tapirs with proboscises, primitive pigs,
squirrels, lemurs, opossums, and several tribes of monkeylike
animals. They were all small, primitive, and best suited to
living among the forests of the mountain regions. A large
ostrichlike land bird developed to a height of ten feet and laid
an egg nine by thirteen inches. These were the ancestors of the
later gigantic passenger birds that were so highly intelligent,
and that onetime transported human beings through the air.
61:1.5 The mammals of the early Cenozoic lived
on land, under the water, in the air, and among the treetops.
They had from one to eleven pairs of mammary glands, and all
were covered with considerable hair. In common with the later
appearing orders, they developed two successive sets of teeth
and possessed large brains in comparison to body size. But among
them all no modern forms existed.
61:1.6 40,000,000 years ago the land
areas of the Northern Hemisphere began to elevate, and this was
followed by new extensive land deposits and other terrestrial
activities, including lava flows, warping, lake formation, and
erosion.
61:1.7 During the latter part of this epoch
most of Europe was submerged. Following a slight land rise the
continent was covered by lakes and bays. The Arctic Ocean,
through the Ural depression, ran south to connect with the
Mediterranean Sea as it was then expanded northward, the
highlands of the Alps, Carpathians, Apennines, and Pyrenees
being up above the water as islands of the sea. The Isthmus of
Panama was up; the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were separated.
North America was connected with Asia by the Bering Strait land
bridge and with Europe by way of Greenland and Iceland. The
earth circuit of land in northern latitudes was broken only by
the Ural Straits, which connected the arctic seas with the
enlarged Mediterranean.
61:1.8 Considerable foraminiferal limestone
was deposited in European waters. Today this same stone is
elevated to a height of 10,000 feet in the Alps, 16,000 feet in
the Himalayas, and 20,000 feet in Tibet. The chalk deposits of
this period are found along the coasts of Africa and Australia,
on the west coast of South America, and about the West Indies.
61:1.9 Throughout this so-called Eocene
period the evolution of mammalian and other related forms of
life continued with little or no interruption. North America was
then connected by land with every continent except Australia,
and the world was gradually overrun by primitive mammalian fauna
of various types.
2. THE RECENT FLOOD STAGE
THE AGE OF ADVANCED MAMMALS
61:2.1 This period was characterized by the
further and rapid evolution of placental mammals, the more
progressive forms of mammalian life developing during these
times.
61:2.2 Although the early placental mammals
sprang from carnivorous ancestors, very soon herbivorous
branches developed, and, erelong, omnivorous mammalian families
also sprang up. The angiosperms were the principal food of the
rapidly increasing mammals, the modern land flora, including the
majority of present-day plants and trees, having appeared during
earlier periods.
61:2.3 35,000,000 years ago marks the
beginning of the age of placental-mammalian world domination.
The southern land bridge was extensive, reconnecting the then
enormous Antarctic continent with South America, South Africa,
and Australia. In spite of the massing of land in high
latitudes, the world climate remained relatively mild because of
the enormous increase in the size of the tropic seas, nor was
the land elevated sufficiently to produce glaciers. Extensive
lava flows occurred in Greenland and Iceland, some coal being
deposited between these layers.
61:2.4 Marked changes were taking place in the
fauna of the planet. The sea life was undergoing great
modification; most of the present-day orders of marine life were
in existence, and foraminifers continued to play an important
role. The insect life was much like that of the previous era.
The Florissant fossil beds of Colorado belong to the later years
of these far-distant times. Most of the living insect families
go back to this period, but many then in existence are now
extinct, though their fossils remain.
61:2.5 On land this was pre-eminently the age
of mammalian renovation and expansion. Of the earlier and more
primitive mammals, over one hundred species were extinct before
this period ended. Even the mammals of large size and small
brain soon perished. Brains and agility had replaced armor and
size in the progress of animal survival. And with the dinosaur
family on the decline, the mammals slowly assumed domination of
the earth, speedily and completely destroying the remainder of
their reptilian ancestors.
61:2.6 Along with the disappearance of the
dinosaurs, other and great changes occurred in the various
branches of the saurian family. The surviving members of the
early reptilian families are turtles, snakes, and crocodiles,
together with the venerable frog, the only remaining group
representative of man's earlier ancestors.
61:2.7 Various groups of mammals had their
origin in a unique animal now extinct. This carnivorous creature
was something of a cross between a cat and a seal; it could live
on land or in water and was highly intelligent and very active.
In Europe the ancestor of the canine family evolved, soon giving
rise to many species of small dogs. About the same time the
gnawing rodents, including beavers, squirrels, gophers, mice,
and rabbits, appeared and soon became a notable form of life,
very little change having since occurred in this family. The
later deposits of this period contain the fossil remains of
dogs, cats, coons, and weasels in ancestral form.
61:2.8 30,000,000 years ago the modern
types of mammals began to make their appearance. Formerly the
mammals had lived for the greater part in the hills, being of
the mountainous types; suddenly there began the evolution
of the plains or hoofed type, the grazing species, as
differentiated from the clawed flesh eaters. These grazers
sprang from an undifferentiated ancestor having five toes and
forty-four teeth, which perished before the end of the age. Toe
evolution did not progress beyond the three-toed stage
throughout this period.
61:2.9 The horse, an outstanding example of
evolution, lived during these times in both North America and
Europe, though his development was not fully completed until the
later ice age. While the rhinoceros family appeared at the close
of this period, it underwent its greatest expansion
subsequently. A small hoglike creature also developed which
became the ancestor of the many species of swine, peccaries, and
hippopotamuses. Camels and llamas had their origin in North
America about the middle of this period and overran the western
plains. Later, the llamas migrated to South America, the camels
to Europe, and soon both were extinct in North America, though a
few camels survived up to the ice age.
61:2.10 About this time a notable thing
occurred in western North America: The early ancestors of the
ancient lemurs first made their appearance. While this family
cannot be regarded as true lemurs, their coming marked the
establishment of the line from which the true lemurs
subsequently sprang.
61:2.11 Like the land serpents of a previous
age which betook themselves to the seas, now a whole tribe of
placental mammals deserted the land and took up their residence
in the oceans. And they have ever since remained in the sea,
yielding the modern whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea
lions.
61:2.12 The bird life of the planet continued
to develop, but with few important evolutionary changes. The
majority of modern birds were existent, including gulls, herons,
flamingoes, buzzards, falcons, eagles, owls, quails, and
ostriches.
61:2.13 By the close of this Oligocene
period, covering ten million years, the plant life, together
with the marine life and the land animals, had very largely
evolved and was present on earth much as today. Considerable
specialization has subsequently appeared, but the ancestral
forms of most living things were then alive.
3. THE MODERN MOUNTAIN STAGE
AGE OF THE ELEPHANT AND THE HORSE
61:3.1 Land elevation and sea segregation were
slowly changing the world's weather, gradually cooling it, but
the climate was still mild. Sequoias and magnolias grew in
Greenland, but the subtropical plants were beginning to migrate
southward. By the end of this period these warm-climate plants
and trees had largely disappeared from the northern latitudes,
their places being taken by more hardy plants and the deciduous
trees.
61:3.2 There was a great increase in the
varieties of grasses, and the teeth of many mammalian species
gradually altered to conform to the present-day grazing type.
61:3.3 25,000,000 years ago there was a
slight land submergence following the long epoch of land
elevation. The Rocky Mountain region remained highly elevated so
that the deposition of erosion material continued throughout the
lowlands to the east. The Sierras were well re-elevated; in
fact, they have been rising ever since. The great four-mile
vertical fault in the California region dates from this time.
61:3.4 20,000,000 years ago was indeed
the golden age of mammals. Bering Strait land bridge was up, and
many groups of animals migrated to North America from Asia,
including the four-tusked mastodons, short-legged rhinoceroses,
and many varieties of the cat family.
61:3.5 The first deer appeared, and North
America was soon overrun by ruminants -- deer, oxen, camels,
bison, and several species of rhinoceroses -- but the giant
pigs, more than six feet tall, became extinct.
61:3.6 The huge elephants of this and
subsequent periods possessed large brains as well as large
bodies, and they soon overran the entire world except Australia.
For once the world was dominated by a huge animal with a brain
sufficiently large to enable it to carry on. Confronted by the
highly intelligent life of these ages, no animal the size of an
elephant could have survived unless it had possessed a brain of
large size and superior quality. In intelligence and adaptation
the elephant is approached only by the horse and is surpassed
only by man himself. Even so, of the fifty species of elephants
in existence at the opening of this period, only two have
survived.
61:3.7 15,000,000 years ago the
mountain regions of Eurasia were rising, and there was some
volcanic activity throughout these regions, but nothing
comparable to the lava flows of the Western Hemisphere. These
unsettled conditions prevailed all over the world.
61:3.8 The Strait of Gibraltar closed, and
Spain was connected with Africa by the old land bridge, but the
Mediterranean flowed into the Atlantic through a narrow channel
which extended across France, the mountain peaks and highlands
appearing as islands above this ancient sea. Later on, these
European seas began to withdraw. Still later, the Mediterranean
was connected with the Indian Ocean, while at the close of this
period the Suez region was elevated so that the Mediterranean
became, for a time, an inland salt sea.
61:3.9 The Iceland land bridge submerged, and
the arctic waters commingled with those of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic coast of North America rapidly cooled, but the
Pacific coast remained warmer than at present. The great ocean
currents were in function and affected climate much as they do
today.
61:3.10 Mammalian life continued to evolve.
Enormous herds of horses joined the camels on the western plains
of North America; this was truly the age of horses as well as of
elephants. The horse's brain is next in animal quality to that
of the elephant, but in one respect it is decidedly inferior,
for the horse never fully overcame the deep-seated propensity to
flee when frightened. The horse lacks the emotional control of
the elephant, while the elephant is greatly handicapped by size
and lack of agility. During this period an animal evolved which
was somewhat like both the elephant and the horse, but it was
soon destroyed by the rapidly increasing cat family.
61:3.11 As Urantia is entering the so-called
"horseless age," you should pause and ponder what this animal
meant to your ancestors. Men first used horses for food, then
for travel, and later in agriculture and war. The horse has long
served mankind and has played an important part in the
development of human civilization.
61:3.12 The biologic developments of this
period contributed much toward the setting of the stage for the
subsequent appearance of man. In central Asia the true types of
both the primitive monkey and the gorilla evolved, having a
common ancestor, now extinct. But neither of these species is
concerned in the line of living beings which were, later on, to
become the ancestors of the human race.
61:3.13 The dog family was represented by
several groups, notably wolves and foxes; the cat tribe, by
panthers and large saber-toothed tigers, the latter first
evolving in North America. The modern cat and dog families
increased in numbers all over the world. Weasels, martins,
otters, and raccoons thrived and developed throughout the
northern latitudes.
61:3.14 Birds continued to evolve, though few
marked changes occurred. Reptiles were similar to modern types
-- snakes, crocodiles, and turtles.
61:3.15 Thus drew to a close a very eventful
and interesting period of the world's history. This age of the
elephant and the horse is known as the Miocene.
4. THE RECENT CONTINENTAL-ELEVATION STAGE
THE LAST GREAT MAMMALIAN MIGRATION
61:4.1 This is the period of preglacial land
elevation in North America, Europe, and Asia. The land was
greatly altered in topography. Mountain ranges were born,
streams changed their courses, and isolated volcanoes broke out
all over the world.
61:4.2 10,000,000 years ago began an
age of widespread local land deposits on the lowlands of the
continents, but most of these sedimentations were later removed.
Much of Europe, at this time, was still under water, including
parts of England, Belgium, and France, and the Mediterranean Sea
covered much of northern Africa. In North America extensive
depositions were made at the mountain bases, in lakes, and in
the great land basins. These deposits average only about two
hundred feet, are more or less colored, and fossils are rare.
Two great fresh-water lakes existed in western North America.
The Sierras were elevating; Shasta, Hood, and Rainier were
beginning their mountain careers. But it was not until the
subsequent ice age that North America began its creep toward the
Atlantic depression.
61:4.3 For a short time all the land of the
world was again joined excepting Australia, and the last great
world-wide animal migration took place. North America was
connected with both South America and Asia, and there was a free
exchange of animal life. Asiatic sloths, armadillos, antelopes,
and bears entered North America, while North American camels
went to China. Rhinoceroses migrated over the whole world except
Australia and South America, but they were extinct in the
Western Hemisphere by the close of this period.
61:4.4 In general, the life of the preceding
period continued to evolve and spread. The cat family dominated
the animal life, and marine life was almost at a standstill.
Many of the horses were still three-toed, but the modern types
were arriving; llamas and giraffelike camels mingled with the
horses on the grazing plains. The giraffe appeared in Africa,
having just as long a neck then as now. In South America sloths,
armadillos, anteaters, and the South American type of primitive
monkeys evolved. Before the continents were finally isolated,
those massive animals, the mastodons, migrated everywhere except
to Australia.
61:4.5 5,000,000 years ago the horse
evolved as it now is and from North America migrated to all the
world. But the horse had become extinct on the continent of its
origin long before the red man arrived.
61:4.6 The climate was gradually getting
cooler; the land plants were slowly moving southward. At first
it was the increasing cold in the north that stopped animal
migrations over the northern isthmuses; subsequently these North
American land bridges went down. Soon afterwards the land
connection between Africa and South America finally submerged,
and the Western Hemisphere was isolated much as it is today.
From this time forward distinct types of life began to develop
in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
61:4.7 And thus does this period of almost ten
million years' duration draw to a close, and not yet has the
ancestor of man appeared. This is the time usually designated as
the Pliocene.
5. THE EARLY ICE AGE
61:5.1 By the close of the preceding period
the lands of the northeastern part of North America and of
northern Europe were highly elevated on an extensive scale, in
North America vast areas rising up to 30,000 feet and more. Mild
climates had formerly prevailed over these northern regions, and
the arctic waters were all open to evaporation, and they
continued to be ice-free until almost the close of the glacial
period.
61:5.2 Simultaneously with these land
elevations the ocean currents shifted, and the seasonal winds
changed their direction. These conditions eventually produced an
almost constant precipitation of moisture from the movement of
the heavily saturated atmosphere over the northern highlands.
Snow began to fall on these elevated and therefore cool regions,
and it continued to fall until it had attained a depth of 20,000
feet. The areas of the greatest depth of snow, together with
altitude, determined the central points of subsequent glacial
pressure flows. And the ice age persisted just as long as this
excessive precipitation continued to cover these northern
highlands with this enormous mantle of snow, which soon
metamorphosed into solid but creeping ice.
61:5.3 The great ice sheets of this period
were all located on elevated highlands, not in mountainous
regions where they are found today. One half of the glacial ice
was in North America, one fourth in Eurasia, and one fourth
elsewhere, chiefly in Antarctica. Africa was little affected by
the ice, but Australia was almost covered with the antarctic ice
blanket.
61:5.4 The northern regions of this world have
experienced six separate and distinct ice invasions, although
there were scores of advances and recessions associated with the
activity of each individual ice sheet. The ice in North America
collected in two and, later, three centers. Greenland was
covered, and Iceland was completely buried beneath the ice flow.
In Europe the ice at various times covered the British Isles
excepting the coast of southern England, and it overspread
western Europe down to France.
61:5.5 2,000,000 years ago the first
North American glacier started its southern advance. The ice age
was now in the making, and this glacier consumed nearly one
million years in its advance from, and retreat back toward, the
northern pressure centers. The central ice sheet extended south
as far as Kansas; the eastern and western ice centers were not
then so extensive.
61:5.6 1,500,000 years ago the first
great glacier was retreating northward. In the meantime,
enormous quantities of snow had been falling on Greenland and on
the northeastern part of North America, and erelong this eastern
ice mass began to flow southward. This was the second invasion
of the ice.
61:5.7 These first two ice invasions were not
extensive in Eurasia. During these early epochs of the ice age
North America was overrun with mastodons, woolly mammoths,
horses, camels, deer, musk oxen, bison, ground sloths, giant
beavers, saber-toothed tigers, sloths as large as elephants, and
many groups of the cat and dog families. But from this time
forward they were rapidly reduced in numbers by the increasing
cold of the glacial period. Toward the close of the ice age the
majority of these animal species were extinct in North America.
61:5.8 Away from the ice the land and water
life of the world was little changed. Between the ice invasions
the climate was about as mild as at present, perhaps a little
warmer. The glaciers were, after all, local phenomena, though
they spread out to cover enormous areas. The coastwise climate
varied greatly between the times of glacial inaction and those
times when enormous icebergs were sliding off the coast of Maine
into the Atlantic, slipping out through Puget Sound into the
Pacific, and thundering down Norwegian fiords into the North
Sea.
6. PRIMITIVE MAN IN THE ICE AGE
61:6.1 The great event of this glacial period
was the evolution of primitive man. Slightly to the west of
India, on land now under water and among the offspring of
Asiatic migrants of the older North American lemur types, the
dawn mammals suddenly appeared. These small animals
walked mostly on their hind legs, and they possessed large
brains in proportion to their size and in comparison with the
brains of other animals. In the seventieth generation of this
order of life a new and higher group of animals suddenly
differentiated. These new mid-mammals -- almost twice the size
and height of their ancestors and possessing proportionately
increased brain power -- had only well established themselves
when the Primates, the third vital mutation, suddenly
appeared. (At this same time, a retrograde development within
the mid-mammal stock gave origin to the simian ancestry; and
from that day to this the human branch has gone forward by
progressive evolution, while the simian tribes have remained
stationary or have actually retrogressed.)
61:6.2 1,000,000 years ago Urantia was
registered as an inhabited world. A mutation within the
stock of the progressing Primates suddenly produced two
primitive human beings, the actual ancestors of mankind.
61:6.3 This event occurred at about the time
of the beginning of the third glacial advance; thus it may be
seen that your early ancestors were born and bred in a
stimulating, invigorating, and difficult environment. And the
sole survivors of these Urantia aborigines, the Eskimos, even
now prefer to dwell in frigid northern climes.
61:6.4 Human beings were not present in the
Western Hemisphere until near the close of the ice age. But
during the interglacial epochs they passed westward around the
Mediterranean and soon overran the continent of Europe. In the
caves of western Europe may be found human bones mingled with
the remains of both tropic and arctic animals, testifying that
man lived in these regions throughout the later epochs of the
advancing and retreating glaciers.
7. THE CONTINUING ICE AGE
61:7.1 Throughout the glacial period other
activities were in progress, but the action of the ice
overshadows all other phenomena in the northern latitudes. No
other terrestrial activity leaves such characteristic evidence
on the topography. The distinctive boulders and surface
cleavages, such as potholes, lakes, displaced stone, and rock
flour, are to be found in connection with no other phenomenon in
nature. The ice is also responsible for those gentle swells, or
surface undulations, known as drumlins. And a glacier, as it
advances, displaces rivers and changes the whole face of the
earth. Glaciers alone leave behind them those telltale drifts --
the ground, lateral, and terminal moraines. These drifts,
particularly the ground moraines, extend from the eastern
seaboard north and westward in North America and are found in
Europe and Siberia.
61:7.2 750,000 years ago the fourth ice
sheet, a union of the North American central and eastern ice
fields, was well on its way south; at its height it reached to
southern Illinois, displacing the Mississippi River fifty miles
to the west, and in the east it extended as far south as the
Ohio River and central Pennsylvania.
61:7.3 In Asia the Siberian ice sheet made its
southernmost invasion, while in Europe the advancing ice stopped
just short of the mountain barrier of the Alps.
61:7.4 500,000 years ago, during the
fifth advance of the ice, a new development accelerated the
course of human evolution. Suddenly and in one generation
the six colored races mutated from the aboriginal human stock.
This is a doubly important date since it also marks the arrival
of the Planetary Prince.
61:7.5 In North America the advancing fifth
glacier consisted of a combined invasion by all three ice
centers. The eastern lobe, however, extended only a short
distance below the St. Lawrence valley, and the western ice
sheet made little southern advance. But the central lobe reached
south to cover most of the State of Iowa. In Europe this
invasion of the ice was not so extensive as the preceding one.
61:7.6 250,000 years ago the sixth and
last glaciation began. And despite the fact that the northern
highlands had begun to sink slightly, this was the period of
greatest snow deposition on the northern ice fields.
61:7.7 In this invasion the three great ice
sheets coalesced into one vast ice mass, and all of the western
mountains participated in this glacial activity. This was the
largest of all ice invasions in North America; the ice moved
south over fifteen hundred miles from its pressure centers, and
North America experienced its lowest temperatures.
61:7.8 200,000 years ago, during the
advance of the last glacier, there occurred an episode which had
much to do with the march of events on Urantia -- the Lucifer
rebellion.
61:7.9 150,000 years ago the sixth and
last glacier reached its farthest points of southern extension,
the western ice sheet crossing just over the Canadian border;
the central coming down into Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois; the
eastern sheet advancing south and covering the greater portion
of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
61:7.10 This is the glacier that sent forth
the many tongues, or ice lobes, which carved out the present-day
lakes, great and small. During its retreat the North American
system of Great Lakes was produced. And Urantian geologists have
very accurately deduced the various stages of this development
and have correctly surmised that these bodies of water did, at
different times, empty first into the Mississippi valley, then
eastward into the Hudson valley, and finally by a northern route
into the St. Lawrence. It is thirty-seven thousand years since
the connected Great Lakes system began to empty out over the
present Niagara route.
61:7.11 100,000 years ago, during the
retreat of the last glacier, the vast polar ice sheets began to
form, and the center of ice accumulation moved considerably
northward. And as long as the polar regions continue to be
covered with ice, it is hardly possible for another glacial age
to occur, regardless of future land elevations or modification
of ocean currents.
61:7.12 This last glacier was one hundred
thousand years advancing, and it required a like span of time to
complete its northern retreat. The temperate regions have been
free from the ice for a little over fifty thousand years.
61:7.13 The rigorous glacial period destroyed
many species and radically changed numerous others. Many were
sorely sifted by the to-and-fro migration which was made
necessary by the advancing and retreating ice. Those animals
which followed the glaciers back and forth over the land were
the bear, bison, reindeer, musk ox, mammoth, and mastodon.
61:7.14 The mammoth sought the open prairies,
but the mastodon preferred the sheltered fringes of the forest
regions. The mammoth, until a late date, ranged from Mexico to
Canada; the Siberian variety became wool covered. The mastodon
persisted in North America until exterminated by the red man
much as the white man later killed off the bison.
61:7.15 In North America, during the last
glaciation, the horse, tapir, llama, and saber-toothed tiger
became extinct. In their places sloths, armadillos, and water
hogs came up from South America.
61:7.16 The enforced migration of life before
the advancing ice led to an extraordinary commingling of plants
and of animals, and with the retreat of the final ice invasion,
many arctic species of both plants and animals were left
stranded high upon certain mountain peaks, whither they had
journeyed to escape destruction by the glacier. And so, today,
these dislocated plants and animals may be found high up on the
Alps of Europe and even on the Appalachian Mountains of North
America.
61:7.17 The ice age is the last completed
geologic period, the so-called Pleistocene, over two
million years in length.
61:7.18 35,000 years ago marks the
termination of the great ice age excepting in the polar regions
of the planet. This date is also significant in that it
approximates the arrival of a Material Son and Daughter and the
beginning of the Adamic dispensation, roughly corresponding to
the beginning of the Holocene or postglacial period.
61:7.19 This narrative, extending from the
rise of mammalian life to the retreat of the ice and on down to
historic times, covers a span of almost fifty million years.
This is the last -- the current -- geologic period and is known
to your researchers as the Cenozoic or recent-times era.
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