Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1872

Text in this page (from paragraph 3700, sentence 310, word 22 to paragraph 3700, sentence 400, word 57) is not present in 1872

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 .. answer in the affirmative; and it seems that this answer must be admitted as true, though difficult of proof. ↑

It is no valid objection to this conclusion, ... that certain Brachiopods have been but slightly modified from an extremely remote geological epoch; and that certain land and fresh-water shells have remained nearly the same, from the time when, as far as is known, they first appeared. It is not an insuperable difficulty that Foraminifera have not, ... as insisted on by Dr. Carpenter, progressed in organisation since even the Laurentian epoch; for some organisms would have to remain fitted for simple conditions of life, and what could be better fitted for this end than these lowly organised Protozoa? ↑ Such

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