| → may under new conditions of life 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| under new conditions of life may 1872 |
|
| → have 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| it may have 1872 |
|
| → and their intermediate states 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| OMIT 1872 |
|
|
the two forms which it connects; consequently the two latter, during the course of further modification, from existing in greater numbers, will have a great advantage over the less numerous intermediate variety, and will thus generally succeed in supplanting and
it. |
|
| We have seen in this chapter how cautious we should be in concluding that the most different habits of life could not graduate into each other; that a bat, for instance, could not have been formed by natural selection from an animal which at first
only
through the air. |
|
| We have seen that a species
→may under new conditions of life
change its
or
→have
diversified habits, with some
very unlike those of its nearest congeners. Hence we can understand, bearing in mind that each organic being is trying to live wherever it can live, how it has arisen that there are upland geese with webbed feet, ground woodpeckers, diving thrushes, and petrels with the habits of auks. |
|
| Although the belief that an organ so perfect as the eye could have been formed by natural selection, is
enough to stagger any one; yet in the case of any organ, if we know of a long series of
in complexity, each good for its possessor, then, under changing conditions of
there is no logical impossibility in the acquirement of any conceivable degree of perfection through natural selection. In the cases in which we know of no intermediate or transitional states, we should be
cautious in concluding that none
have existed, for the
of many organs
→and their intermediate states
show
wonderful
in function are at least possible. For instance, a
has apparently been converted into an air-breathing lung. The same organ having performed
|
