The most remarkable form of this group is
the huge _Colossochelys Atlas_ of the Upper Miocene deposits
of the Siwalik Hills in India, described by Dr Falconer and Sir
Proby Cautley. Far exceeding any living Tortoise in its dimensions,
this enormous animal is estimated as having had a length of about
twenty feet, measured from the tip of the snout to the extremity
of the tail, and to have stood upwards of seven feet high. All the
details of its organisation, however, prove that it must have been
"strictly a land animal, with herbivorous habits, and probably
of the most inoffensive nature." The accomplished palaeontologist
just quoted, shows further that some of the traditions of the
Hindoos would render it not improbable that this colossal Tortoise
had survived into the earlier portion of the human period.
Of the _Birds_ of the Miocene period it is sufficient to remark
that though specifically distinct, they belong, so far as known,
wholly to existing groups, and therefore present no points of
special palaeontological interest.
The _Mammals_ of the Miocene are very numerous, and only the more
important forms can be here alluded to. Amongst the _Marsupials_,
the Old World still continued to possess species of Opossum
(_Didephys_), allied to the existing American forms. The _Edentates_
(Sloths, Armadillos, and Ant-eaters), at the present day mainly
South American, are represented by two large European forms.
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