The British Study Edition of the Urantia Papers

land life down to the more recent times of the immediate ancestors of the human species and its collateral branches. This, the Cretaceous age, covers 50,000,000 years and brings to a close the premammalian era of land life, which extends over a period of 100,000,000 years and is known as the Mesozoic.

^60:4.7 [Presented by a Life Carrier of Nebadon assigned to Satania and now functioning on Urantia.]

PAPER № 61 THE MAMMALIAN ERA ON URANTIA

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 50,000,000 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 the 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 50,000,000-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:

^61:1.4 1. Bring forth relatively mature and well-developed offspring.

^61:1.5 2. Nourish, nurture, and protect their offspring with affectionate regard.

^61:1.6 3. Employ their superior brain power in self-perpetuation.

^61:1.7 4. Utilize increased agility in escaping from enemies.

^61:1.8 5. Apply superior intelligence to environmental adjustment and adaptation.

^61:1.9 ¶ 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 10 m and laid an egg 22 by 33 cm. These were the ancestors of the later gigantic passenger birds that were so highly intelligent, and that onetime transported human beings through the air.

^61:1.10 The mammals of the early Cenozoic lived on land, under the water, in the air, and among the treetops. They had from 1 to 11 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.

^61:1.11 ¶ 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.

^61:1.12 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.

^61:1.13 Considerable foraminiferal limestone was deposited in European waters. Today this same stone is elevated to a height of 3 km in the Alps, 4.8 km in the Himalayas, and 6 km 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.

^61:1.14 ¶ 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, ere long, 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