A little more than one million years ago the Mesopotamian dawn mammals, the direct descendants of the North American lemur type of placental mammal, suddenly appeared. [1] They developed an extraordinary fear which led to those wise precautionary measures that so enormously contributed to survival. [2] They gave rise to mid-mammals after 70 generations. [3]
When the numbers of this new and superior group grew great, war, relentless war, broke out; and when the terrible struggle was over, not a single individual of the pre-existent and ancestral race of dawn mammals remained alive. [4]
The immediate lemurlike mother of the dawn-mammal species escaped death no less than five times by mere hairbreadth margins before she gave birth to the father of the new and higher mammalian order. [5]
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. [6] They experienced many of the emotions and shared numerous instincts which later characterized primitive man. [7] They were, indeed, highly gregarious but nevertheless exceedingly pugnacious when in any way disturbed. [8]
See also: UB 62:2.