Origin of Species Variorum

→ beds. 1861 1866 1869 1872

beds. Notwithstanding that the number of joints shown in the fossil impressions correspond with the number in the several toes of living birds feet, some authors doubt whether the animals which left the impressions were really birds. 1860

↑ 2 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869; present in 1872

Not long ago, palæontologists maintained that the whole class of birds came suddenly into existence during the eocene period; but now we know, on the authority of Professor Owen, that a bird certainly lived during the deposition of the upper greensand; and still more recently, that strange bird, the Archeopteryx, with a long lizard-like tail, bearing a pair of feathers on each joint, and with its wings furnished with two free claws, has been discovered in the oolitic slates of Solenhofen. Hardly any recent discovery shows more forcibly than this, how little we as yet know of the former inhabitants of the world.

→ an early tertiary 1860 1861

the eocene 1866 1869

→ OMIT 1861 1866 1869

(as may be seen in Lyells Manual), 1860

↑ 2 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861 1872; present in 1866 1869

and still more recently, that strange bird, the Archeopteryx, with a long lizard-like tail, bearing a pair of feathers on each joint, and with its wings furnished with two free claws, has been discovered in the oolitic slates of Solenhofen. Hardly any recent discovery shows more forcibly than this how little we as yet know of the former inhabitants of the world.

↑ 2 blocks not present in 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859

The most striking case, however, is that of the Whale family; as these animals have huge bones, are marine, and range over the world, the fact of not a single bone of a whale having been discovered in any secondary formation, seemed fully to justify the belief that this great and distinct order had been suddenly produced in the interval between the latest secondary and earliest tertiary formation. But now we may read in the Supplement to Lyell's 'Manual,' published in 1858, clear evidence of the existence of whales in the upper greensand, some time before the close of the secondary period.

fragment of bone has been discovered in these →beds. ↑ Until quite recently these authors might have maintained, and some have maintained, that the whole class of birds came suddenly into existence during →an early tertiary period; but now we know, on the authority of Professor

Owen

Owen,

→OMIT that a bird certainly lived during the deposition of the upper

greensand.

greensand;

green-sand.

↑ ↑

I may give another instance,

which

which,

from having passed under my own

eyes

eyes,

has much struck me. In a memoir on Fossil Sessile Cirripedes, I

~~have~~

have

stated that, from the

large number

number

of existing and extinct tertiary species; from the extraordinary abundance of the individuals of many species all over the world, from the Arctic regions to the equator, inhabiting various zones of depths from the upper tidal limits to 50 fathoms; from the perfect manner in which specimens are

pre- served

preserved

in the oldest tertiary beds; from the ease with which even a fragment of a valve can be recognised; from all these circumstances, I inferred

that,

that

had sessile cirripedes existed during the secondary periods, they would certainly have been preserved and discovered; and as not one species had

been

then been

discovered in beds of this age, I concluded that this great group had been suddenly developed at the commencement of the tertiary series. This was a sore trouble to me, adding as I

then thought

thought

one more instance of the abrupt appearance of a great group of species. But my work had hardly been published, when a skilful palæontologist, M. Bosquet, sent me a drawing of a perfect specimen of an unmistakeable sessile cirripede, which he had himself extracted from the chalk