| → the whole class of mammals was 1861 1866 |
| the great class of mammals was 1859 1860 |
| mammals were 1869 1872 |
|
| → for its thickness, belongs 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| belongs 1859 1872 |
|
| → series. 1859 1860 1861 1869 1872 |
| series. Cuvier used to urge that no monkey occurred in any tertiary stratum; but now extinct species have been discovered in India, South America, and in Europe, as far back as the miocene stage. 1866 |
|
| → kinds of birds, 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| different bird-like animals, 1872 |
|
|
that we here see the real transitional
through which the wings of birds have passed; but what special difficulty is there in believing that it might profit the modified descendants of the penguin, first to become enabled to flap along the surface of the sea like the logger-headed duck, and ultimately to rise from its surface and glide through the air? |
|
| I will now give a few examples to illustrate
and to show how liable we are to error in supposing that whole groups of species have suddenly been produced. Even in so short an interval as that between the first and second editions of
great work on Palæontology, published in 1844-46 and
1853-57, the conclusions on the first appearance and disappearance of several groups of animals have been considerably modified; and a third edition would require still further changes. I may recall the well-known fact that in geological treatises, published not many years ago,
→the whole class of mammals was
always spoken of as having abruptly come in at the commencement of the tertiary series. And now one of the richest known accumulations of fossil
→for its thickness, belongs
to the middle of the secondary series; and
true
been discovered in the new red sandstone at nearly the commencement of this great
→series. Cuvier used to urge that no monkey occurred in any tertiary stratum; but now extinct species have been discovered in India, South America, and in
as far back as the
stage. Had it not been for the rare accident of the preservation of footsteps in the new red sandstone of the United States, who would have ventured to suppose
no less than at least thirty
→kinds of birds,
some of gigantic size, existed during that period? Notwithstanding that the number of joints shown in the fossil impressions
with the number in the several toes of living birds' feet, some authors doubt whether the animals which left
impressions were really birds. Not a
|
