| → nearly all our existing species with extinct 1869 |
| all known 1861 1866 |
| together nearly all existing and extinct 1872 |
|
| → ought not to be expected; yet this has been repeatedly advanced as a most serious objection 1869 1872 |
| not having been effected by geology is the most obvious of the many objections which may be urged 1861 1866 |
|
| ↑ 1 blocks not present in 1861 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 |
| Geological research, though it has added numerous species to existing and extinct genera, and has made the intervals between some few groups less wide than they otherwise would have been, yet has done scarcely anything in breaking down the distinction between species, by connecting them together by numerous, fine, intermediate varieties; and this not having been effected, is probably the gravest and most obvious of all the many objections which may be urged against my views.
|
|
| → It may 1869 1872 |
| Hence it will 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
| → on the causes of the imperfection of the geological record under 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| under 1859 1860 |
|
| → of the whole world 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| OMIT 1872 |
|
| → Not 1869 1872 |
| I suspect that not 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
| → epoch. 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| epoch. Wherever sediment did not accumulate on the bed of the sea, or where it did not accumulate at a sufficient rate to protect organic bodies from decay, no remains could be preserved. 1872 |
|
|
chain of linking forms does not, however, in these cases, or in any case, run straight from the one living form to the other, but takes a circuitous sweep through the forms which lived during
ages. What geological research has not
is the former existence of infinitely numerous gradations, as fine as existing varieties, connecting
→nearly all our existing species with extinct
species.
this
→ought not to be expected; yet this has been repeatedly advanced as a most serious objection
against my views. ↑
|
|
→It may
be worth while to sum up the
→on the causes of the imperfection of the geological record under
an imaginary illustration. The Malay Archipelago is
about the size of Europe from the North Cape to the Mediterranean, and from Britain to Russia; and therefore equals all the geological
which have been examined with any accuracy, excepting those of the United States of America. I fully agree with Mr. Godwin-Austen, that the present condition of the Malay Archipelago, with its numerous large islands separated by wide and shallow seas, probably represents the former state of Europe,
most of our formations were accumulating. The Malay Archipelago is one of the richest regions
→of the whole world
in organic beings; yet if all the species were to be collected which have ever lived there, how imperfectly would they represent the natural history of the world! |
|
| But we have every reason to believe that the terrestrial productions of the archipelago would be preserved in an
imperfect manner in the formations which we suppose to be there accumulating.
→Not
many of the strictly littoral animals, or of those which lived on naked submarine rocks, would be embedded; and those embedded in gravel or
would not endure to a distant
→epoch. Wherever sediment did not
|
