Note 45 — INTRODUCTION.

Animals closely allied to the present wild forms of the llama tribe, namely to the huanacu and vicuña, wandered over the Cordilleras in the post-pleistocene geological period; but there is no vestige either of the llama or of the alpaca at that remote epoch. Fossil remains of an animal, resembling a gigantic huanacu, have been found in Patagonia, and named by Professor Owen Macrauchemia. In 1859 a fossil skeleton of a mammal was produced in Bolivia by Mr. Forbes, and examined by Professor Huxley. It was found in one of the copper mines of Corocoro, and the bones are almost converted into copper, the strata in which it was found being highly impregnated with that metal. This animal has been named Macrauchemia Boliviensis. It is not half as large as the Patagonian species, and its proportions are nearly as slender as the modern vicuña, with even a lighter head. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, February 1st, 1861, pages 47 and 73. Fossil Mammalia of the Voyage of the Beagle. 1839.