Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1861

Text in this page (from paragraph 3700, sentence 310, word 22 to paragraph 3700, sentence 330, word 50) is not present in 1861

If under a nearly similar climate, the eocene inhabitants of one quarter of the world were put into competition with the existing inhabitants of the same or some other quarter, the eocene fauna or flora would certainly be beaten and exterminated; as would a secondary fauna by an eocene, and a palæozoic fauna by a secondary fauna. So that by this fundamental test of victory in the battle for life, as well as by the standard of the specialisation of organs, modern forms ought on the theory of natural selection to stand higher than ancient forms. Is this the case? A large majority of palæontologists would certainly answer in the affirmative; but in my judgment I can, after having read the discussions on this subject by Lyell, and Hooker's views in regard to plants, concur only to a limited extent.

Text in this page (from paragraph 3700, sentence 440 to paragraph 3701, sentence 400, word 1) is not present in 1861

new species will become superior to their predecessors; for they will in the struggle for life have to beat all the older forms with which they come into close competition. ↑ We may therefore conclude that if under a nearly similar climate the eocene inhabitants of ... the world could be put into competition with our existing inhabitants, .. the former would be beaten and exterminated, as would a secondary fauna by an eocene, and a palæozoic fauna by a secondary fauna. So that by this fundamental test of victory in the battle for life, as well as by the standard of the specialisation of organs, modern forms ought on the theory of natural selection to stand higher than ancient forms. Is this the case? A large majority of palæontologists would certainly answer in the affirmative; but in my judgment I cannot, after having read the discussions on this subject by Lyell, Bronn, and Hooker, look at this conclusion as fully proved, though highly probable. ↑

It is no valid objection to this conclusion or to the general belief that species in the course of time change, that certain Brachiopods have been but slightly modified from an extremely remote geological period, although no explanation can be given of this fact. It is not an insuperable difficulty that Foraminifera have not progressed in organisation, as insisted on by Dr. Carpenter, since that most ancient of all epochs the Laurentian formation of Canada; for some organisms would have to remain fitted for simple conditions of life, and what better for this end than these lowly organised Protozoa? It is no great difficulty that fresh-water shells, as Professor Phillips has remarked, have remained almost unaltered from the time when they first appeared to the present day; but in this case we can see that these shells will have been subjected to less severe competition than the molluses which inhabit the far more extensive area of the sea with its innumerable inhabitants. Such