Paper 61
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.
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.
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 ...Mammals possess an immense survival advantage over all other forms of animal life.
3. 45,000,000 years ago ...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 ....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.
4. 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.
5. 35,000,000 years ago marks the beginning of the age of placental‑mammalian world domination... Marked changes were taking place in the fauna of the planet...Brains and agility had replaced armor and size in the progress of animal survival ...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.
6. 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 ...About the same time the gnawing rodents... appeared.
7. 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... Toe evolution did not progress beyond the three‑toed stage throughout this period.
The horse, an outstanding example of evolution, lived during these times in both North America and Europe.
8. Camels and llamas had. their origin in North America ...About this time a notable thing occurred in western North America: The early ancestors of the ancient lemurs first made their appearance ...now a whole tribe of placental mammals deserted the land and took up their residence in the ocean.. And they have ever since remained in the sea, yielding the modern whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lion... 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.
9. 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.
The first deer appeared, and. North America was soon overrun by ruminants.
10. The huge elephant of this and subsequent periods possessed large brains as well as large bodies, and they soon overran the entire world except Australia ...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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
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 ...Weasels, martins, otters, and raccoons thrived and developed throughout the northern latitudes ...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.
14. 10,000,000 years ago began an age of widespread local land deposits on the lowlands of the continents ...Two great freshwater lakes existed in western North America. The Sierras were elevating; Shasta, Hood, and Rainier were beginning their mountain careers ...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 ...Asiatic sloths, armadillos, antelopes, and bears entered North America, while North American camels went to China ...The cat family dominated the animal life...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.
15. 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 ...From this time forward distinct types of life began to develop in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres ...This is the time usually designated as the Pliocene.
16. 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.
17. Simultaneously with these land elevations the ocean currents shifted, and the seasonal winds changes their direction ...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 great ice sheets of this period were all located on elevated highlands, not in mountainous regions where they are found today ...The northern regions of this world have experienced six separate and. distinct ice invasions.
18. 2,000,000 years ago the first North American glacier started its southern advance... The central ice sheet extended south as far as Kansas...During these early epochs of the ice age North America was overrun with mastodons, wooly 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 ...Toward the close of the ice age the majority of these animal species were extinct in North America.
19. 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... In the seventieth generation of this order of life a new and higher group of animals suddenly differentiated. These new mid‑mammals ...had only well established themselves when the Primates, the third vital mutation, suddenly appeared.
20. 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.
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.
21. 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.
22. 750,000 years ago the fourth ice sheet ...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.
23. 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.
24. 250,000 years ago the sixth and last glaciation began ...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.
25. 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.
26. 150,000 years ago the sixth and last glacier reached its farthest points of southern extension ...Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois ...Pennsylvania and Ohio.
This is the glacier that sent forth the many tongues, or ice lobes, which carved out the present‑day lakes, great arid small. During its retreat the North American system of Great Lakes was produced.
27. 100,000 years ago, during the retreat of the last glacier, the vast polar ice sheets began to form…And as long as the polar regions continue to be covered with ice, it is hardly possible for another glacial age to occur ...The ice age is the last completed geologic period, the so‑called Pleistocene.
28. 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 post‑glacial period.
Discussion Questions
1. What might be the cause of sudden mutations in the evolutionary process?
2. Why did the placental mutation occur in the carnivorous, springing tyupe of dinosaur?
3. How could there be egg-laying types of mammals—do eggs have placental qualities?
4. Why did many mammals proliferate and then become extinct?
5. Why might the animal who could live on land or in the water and who was highly intelligent become extinct?
6. Is there evidence that the elephant is superior in intelligence and adaption to to all other animals except man?
7. How does the scientific picture of the origin of man compare with the description in the Urantia Papers?