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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 61
THE MAMMALIAN ERA ON URANTIA
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.
61:7.20
Sponsored by a Resident Life Carrier.
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