Note 182 — Chapter XXXI
Reading edition
In some parts of the earth the same conditions which regulated the distribution of the ancient fauna and flora still prevail. The flora of the carbonaceous epoch is perfectly similar to that of New Zealand, where ferns and club-mosses are so abundant; and the fauna of that ancient period had been representative of that which recently prevailed in these islands, since foot-prints of colossal birds have been discovered in the red sandstone of Connecticut.
The age of reptiles of the Wealden and other secondary periods is representative of the fauna of the Galapagos islands, which chiefly consists of tortoises and creatures of the lizard or crocodile family; and the cycadaceous plants and marsupial animals of the oolite are representative of the flora and fauna of Australia.
The colossal birds which prevailed in New Zealand, almost to the entire exclusion of reptiles and quadrupeds, lasted to a very late period; they differed in the structure of the beak and skull from every class of birds, recent or fossil.