| → 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. 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 |
| series. 1859 1860 1861 1869 1872 |
|
|
excellent Review of this work, in commenting on early transitional forms, and taking birds as an illustration, cannot see how the successive modifications of the anterior limbs of a supposed prototype could possibly have been of any advantage. But look at the penguins of the Southern Ocean; have not these birds their front limbs in this precise intermediate state of
true arms nor true
Yet these birds hold their place victoriously in the battle for life; for they exist in infinite numbers and of many kinds. I do not
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 Europe, as far back as the miocene stage.
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