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.
