Ideal landscape of the Eocene, part of the Tertiary Period, with animals and plants common to Europe. Illustration from Louis Figuier's The World Before the Deluge, 1867 American edition. Herds of herbivores (tapir-like Palaeotherium, long-tailed Anoplotherium and camel-like Xiphodon) peacefully graze in the meadow, surrounded by alders, cypresses and now-extinct Flabellaria palms. A stork-like wading bird (Tantalus sp.) watches the turtles (Trionyx sp.) as they float in the river.