Mammals.  So far as the entries upon the geological record show, mammals made their advent in a very humble way during the Trias.  These earliest of vertebrates which suckle their young were no bigger than young kittens, and their strong affinities with the theromorphs suggest that their ancestors are to be found among some generalized types of that order of reptiles.

During the long ages of the Mesozoic, mammals continued small and few, and were completely dominated by the reptiles.  Their remains are exceedingly rare, and consist of minute scattered teeth,—­with an occasional detached jaw,—­which prove them to have been flesh or insect eaters.  In the same way their affinities are seen to be with the lowest of mammals,—­the monotremes and marsupials.  The monotremes,—­such as the duckbill mole and the spiny ant-eater of Australia, reproduce by means of eggs resembling those of reptiles; the marsupials, such as the opossum and the kangaroo, bring forth their young alive, but in a very immature condition, and carry them for some time after birth in the marsupium, a pouch on the ventral side of the body.

CHAPTER XXI

THE TERTIARY

The Cenozoic era.  The last stages of the Cretaceous are marked by a decadence of the reptiles.  By the end of that period the reptilian forms characteristic of the time had become extinct one after another, leaving to represent the class only the types of reptiles which continue to modern times.  The day of the ammonite and the belemnite also now drew to a close, and only a few of these cephalopods were left to survive the period.  It is therefore at the close of the Cretaceous that the line is drawn which marks the end of the Middle Age of geology and the beginning of the Cenozoic era, the era of modern life,—­the Age of Mammals.

In place of the giant reptiles, mammals now become masters of the land, appearing first in generalized types which, during the long ages of the era, gradually evolve to higher forms, more specialized and ever more closely resembling the mammals of the present.  In the atmosphere the flying dragons of the Mesozoic give place to birds and bats.  In the sea, whales, sharks, and teleost fishes of modern types rule in the stead of huge swimming reptiles.  The lower vertebrates, the invertebrates of land and sea, and the plants of field and forest take on a modern aspect, and differ little more from those of to-day than the plants and animals of different countries now differ from one another.  From the beginning of the Cenozoic era until now there is a steadily increasing number of species of animals and plants which have continued to exist to the present time.

The Cenozoic era comprises two divisions,—­the tertiary period and the quaternary period.

In the early days of geology the formations of the entire geological record, so far as it was then known, were divided into three groups,—­the primary, the secondary (now known as the Mesozoic), and the tertiary, When the third group was subdivided into two systems, the term Tertiary was retained for the first system of the two, while the term quaternary was used to designate the second.