The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. as A. DeCandolle shows plainly that the lower plants range furthest. CUL-DAR205.9.322. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 10.2021. RN1

NOTE: The brown crayon number '22' indicates that this document was filed by Darwin in his portfolio for the subject of Palaeontology: extinction.

Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR205.9 contains notes on palaeontology and geology [regarding theory of evolution].

[322]

as A. DeCandolle shows plainly that the lower plants range furthest (& some slight evidence in infusoria & some of lowest animals) Brachiopods the other mollusc (& acephala then gasteropods? it is probable that in old times organic beings had wider ranges, than now; but another question whether - we can go back further enough to tell.

Again as mammals change more rapidly than shells, (but? those with fish, with which they ought to be compared) & gasteropods than acephala (?), & then these Brachiopods; & all such then infusoria - we may conclude that in fish origin of world progress must have been excessively slow, so that duration of time from similar amount of organic [illeg], far greater in the pre-silurian times.

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)