Palaeontology

“ The degree of accuracy in such anatomical and physiographic restorations from relatively imperfect evidence will always represent the state of the science and the degree of its approach toward being exact or complete. Progress in the science also depends upon the pursuit of palaeontology as zoology and not as geology, because it was a mere accident of birth which connected palaeontology so closely with geology. ”

“ In the study of fossils we are concerned with the nature, evolution and distribution of the former inhabitants of the earth. The study of Palaeontology may be justified as a means of scientific discipline, for the contributions the subject makes to the increase of natural knowledge and the unfolding of panoramas of ancient life. ”

“ It should be remembered that palaeontology is the most unfavourable field of all for observation and demonstration of sudden salutations or mutations of character, because of the limited materials available for comparison and the rarity of genetic series. It should be borne in mind, first, that wherever a new animal suddenly appears or a new character suddenly arises in a fossil horizon we must consider whether such appearance maybe due to the non-discovery of transitional links with older forms, or to the sudden invasion of a new type or new organ which has gradually evolved elsewhere. ”

“ It remains to consider very briefly how far Palæontology supports the doctrine of "Evolution," as it is called; and this, too, is a question of almost infinite dimensions, which can but be glanced at here. Does Palæontology teach us that the almost innumerable kinds of animals and plants which we know to have successively flourished upon the earth in past times were produced separately and wholly independently of each other, at successive periods? ”

“ The mutual relations of palaeontology and embryology and comparative anatomy as means of determining the ancestry of animals are most interesting. In tracing the phylogeny, or ancestral history of organs, palaeontology affords the only absolute criterion on the successive evolution of organs in time as well as of (progressive) evolution in form. From comparative anatomy alone it is possible to arrange a series of living forms which, although structurally a convincing array because placed in a graded series, may be, nevertheless, in an order inverse to that of the actual historical succession. ”

“ First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable of all the results of palaeontology, must be mentioned the immense extension and impulse given to botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy, by the investigation of fossil remains. Indeed, the mass of biological facts has been so greatly increased, and the range of biological speculation has been so vastly widened, by the researches of the geologist and palaeontologist, that it is to be feared there are naturalists in existence who look upon geology as Brindley regarded rivers. ”

“ The broad generalizations that rocks may be identified by their fossil contents and that the testimony of the rocks demonstrates the general order of evolution from simple to complex forms, have only been placed on a surer footing by long continued investigations. The modifications produced by conditions of deposit, of climate and of natural barriers to migration, while introducing complexities into the problems of Palaeontology, are every year becoming better known ”

“ It is perhaps as difficult to imagine a science of zoology divorced from the past in palæontology, as a form of theology without any reference to a future existence, or a history strictly confined to modern events alone. Palaeontology is one of the great witnesses to the truth of organic evolution, which we all regard as the philosophy of natural history. ”

“ Perhaps the most important is Schimper’s “Traité de Paléontologie Végétale.” Very useful information is also contained in Renault’s “Cours de Botanique Fossile,” and in Balfour’s “Introduction to Palæontological Botany,” and Nicholson’s “Palæontology.” Unger’s “Genera et Species,” Brongniart’s “Histoire des Végétaux Fossiles,” and Lindley and Button’s “Fossil Flora,” are older though very valuable works. Williamson’s “Memoirs,” in the “Philosophical Transactions,” have greatly advanced our knowledge of the structures of Palæozoic plants. ”

“ Microscopy and photography are of immense value in certain branches of fossil research, the former in the examination of the minute forms of mollusca, foraminifera and ostracoda, the latter in the exact portraiture of specimens too intricate to copy with the brush, or too evanescent to long retain, when out of their matrix, their clean fresh surfaces. With geology or palaeontology as an objective, a country walk may be a source of much enjoyment to its students, for “in their hand is Nature like an open book” ”

“ My rule has not, however, been invariable in this matter, inasmuch as there exist two recent and trustworthy text-books of Mammalian Palaeontology—Professor Zittel's Handbuch der Palaeontologie, and Dr. A. Smith Woodward's manual, Outlines of Vertebrate Palaeontology, in the Cambridge Biological Series. Where the name of a genus only or its range, or merely one or two facts about it, are mentioned, I have not thought it necessary to go further than these two works. ”

“ Palæontology, which treats of the extinct forms of life and their succession and distribution upon our globe, a branch of science which could hardly be said to exist a century ago, has undergone a wonderful development in our epoch. In some groups of animals and plants, the extinct representatives, already known, are more numerous and important than the living. ”

“ With regard to the connection of the infinite variety of plant and animal forms which stood out as distinct creations a century ago, it is unnecessary to say much. Palaeontology has supplied valuable intermediate forms and linked disparate species, and has connected the species living in a given region with their fossil predecessors. ”

“ The appearance of a second edition affords the author a pleasant opportunity of thanking the reading public, and the Press, for the kind way in which his endeavour to popularise the results of modern Palæontology has been received. There seem to be fashions in all things—even in sciences; and perhaps the wonderful advances we have witnessed of late years in the physical sciences on the one hand, and in biological sciences on the other, may have tended to throw Palæontology somewhat into the shade. ”

“ In order to illustrate the grateful services which palaeontology through restoration may render to the related earth sciences let us imagine a vast continent of the past wholly unknown in its physical features, elevation, climate, configuration, but richly represented by fossil remains. All the fossil plants and animals of every kind are brought from this continent into a great museum ”

“ Invertebrate palaeontology founded by Lamarck, vertebrate palaeontology by Cuvier. Palaeontology connected with comparative anatomy by Cuvier. Invertebrate fossils employed for the definite division of all the great periods of time.—Although pre-evolutionary, this was the heroic period of the science, extending from the close of the 18th century to the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859. Among the pioneers of this period were the vertebrate zoologists and comparative anatomists Peter Simon Pallas, Pieter Camper and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. ”

“ Primarily concerned, therefore, with fixing the age of strata, it is easy to understand how geologists have been content with a special kind of palaeontology which is out of touch with the methods of systematic zoology or botany. On the other hand, the botanist whose observations and researches have not extended beyond the limits of existing plants, sees in the vast majority of fossil forms merely imperfect specimens, which it is impossible to determine with any degree of scientific accuracy. He prefers to wait for perfect material ”

“ The long series of fossiliferous deposits, with their almost countless organic remains, is the link between what has been and what is; and if any answer to the above question can be arrived at, it will be by the careful and conscientious study of the facts of Palæontology. In the present state of our knowledge, it may be safely said that anything like a dogmatic or positive opinion as to the precise sequence of living forms upon the globe, and still more as to the manner in which this sequence may have been brought about, is incapable of scientific proof. ”

“ The origin of the mammalia, as a class, offers a problem of which palaeontology can as yet present no definitive solution. Many morphologists regard the early amphibia as the ancestral group from which the mammals were derived, while most palaeontologists believe that the mammals are descended from the reptiles. ”

“ Embryology and Ontogeny.—In following the discovery of the law of recapitulation among palaeontologists we have clearly stated the chief contribution of palaeontology to the science of ontogeny—namely, the correspondences and differences between the individual order of development and the ancestral order of evolution. ”

“ The treatise which laid the foundation for all subsequent invertebrate palaeontology was his memoir, Sur les fossiles des environs de Paris . . . (1802-1806) . Beginning in 1793 he boldly advocated evolution, and further elaborated five great principles—namely, the method of comparison of extinct and existing forms, the broad sequence of formations and succession of epochs, the correlation of geological horizons by means of fossils, the climatic or environmental changes as influencing the development of species, the inheritance of the bodily modifications caused by change of habit and habitat. ”

“ Palæontology is the science of ancient life, animal and vegetable, the Zoölogy and Botany of the past, and deals with fossils. Fossils are the recognizable remains or traces of animals or plants, which were buried in the rocks at the time of the formation of those rocks. ”

“ In future the philosophic method of palaeontology must continue to advance step by step with exploration; it would be a reproach to later generations if they did not progress as far beyond the philosophic status of Cuvier, Owen and even of Huxley and Cope, as the new materials represent an advance upon the material opportunities which came to them through exploration. ”

“ The general course of Steno's argument may be stated in a few words. Fossils are solid bodies which, by some natural process, have come to be contained within other solid bodies, namely, the rocks in which they are embedded; and the fundamental problem of palaeontology, stated generally, is this: "Given a body endowed with a certain shape and produced in accordance with natural laws, to find in that body itself the evidence of the place and manner of its production." ”

“ Thus, in South America and in Australia, the later tertiary or quaternary fossils show that the fauna which immediately preceded that of the present day was, in the one case, as much characterised by edentates and, in the other, by marsupials as it is now, although the species of the older are largely different from those of the newer fauna. ”

“ Fossils as Guides to Age of Strata.—
In passing from fossil deposits of fairly recent origin to those of older date, we find the proportion of living species gradually diminish, being replaced by forms now extinct. After this the genera themselves are replaced by more ancient types, and if we penetrate still deeper into the series of geological strata, even families and orders of animals and plants give place to others entirely unknown at the present day. ”

“ The task of the palaeontologist thus begins with the appearance of life on the globe, and ends in close relation to the studies of the archaeologist and historian as well as of the zoologist and botanist. That wealth of evidence which the zoologist enjoys, including environment in all its aspects and anatomy in its perfection of organs and tissues, the palaeontologist finds partially or wholly destroyed, and his highest art is that of complete restoration of both the past forms and past environments of life (see Plates I. and II.; figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) . ”

“ Taking each life-group, therefore, from the lowest to the highest types, all the divisions represented by fossils are dealt with in turn, beginning with their occurrence in the oldest rocks and ending with those in the newest strata. ”

“ Since fossils afford an immediate and generally a decisive clue to the mode of deposition of rocks, whether marine, lacustrine, fluviatile, flood plain or aeolian, they lead us naturally into palaeophysiography. Instances of marine and lacustrine analysis have been cited above. The analysis of continental faunas into those inhabiting rivers, lowlands, forests, plains or uplands, affords a key to physiographic conditions all through the Tertiary. ”

“ Generally, however, much closer study and a more detailed examination of a large number of the fossils of a rock series are required before the age of the rocks can be surely established and a safe correlation made with distant localities. ”

“ European and American workers have long been provided with excellent books treating generally of fossils, but the illustrations have been quite naturally taken mainly from forms occurring in the Northern Hemisphere. ”