Paleontologist

“ OUR knowledge of the morphology both of the animal and plant kingdoms has been largely extended by the work of the paleontologist. Mention needs only to be made of the many species, genera and families, even orders and classes, established solely for fossil forms to show how much we owe to paleontology. There is not a single sub-kingdom but has been immensely enriched from this source. ”

“ To-day, the animals and plants now living are believed to be genetically connected with those of the distant past; and the paleontologist no longer deems species of the first importance, but seeks for relationships and genealogies, connecting the past with the present. Working in this spirit, and with such a method, the advance during the last decade has been great, and is an earnest of what is yet to come.
The progress of paleontology in Great Britain during the present period has been great, and the general interest in the science much extended. ”

“ First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable of all the results of paleontology, 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 paleontologist, that it is to be feared there are naturalists in existence who look upon geology as Brindley regarded rivers. ”

“ With other physical sciences paleontology is hardly less intimate; from the physicist it demands time for the evolution of successive waves of organisms, from the geographer it demands continental connections or even whole continents for the passage of land animals and plants. As with geology, what it receives it is ever ready to return in gifts; the new branch of geography, for example, entitled paleogeography, appeals quite as often to the paleontologist as to the geologist for its data. ”

“ It is the work of the zoologist which enables the paleontologist to reconstruct the forms of extinct animals from such fragmentary remains as have been preserved, and it is largely from the results of a comparative study of living forms and their habitats that he is able, in his descriptions, to equip the reconstructed types of a past fauna with environments suited to their structure, and to render more complete the picture of their mode of life. ”

“ These disturbed fragmentary conditions may be likened to fragmentary fossils whose interpretation is attempted. A paleontologist whose only knowledge of animals was derived from such fragments, and who had never known a perfect living animal, would certainly be at a great disadvantage in such an investigation. The natural starting point therefore seems to be in as nearly natural normal environments and associations as is possible, and with such experience one is prepared for the more complex problems resulting from man’s activity. ”

“ A special creation of a single bone is as probable as the special creation of a single species. The method of the paleontologist in the investigation of the one is the method for the other. The only choice lies between natural derivation and supernatural creation.
For such reasons it is now regarded among the active workers in science as a waste of time to discuss the truth of evolution. The battle on this point has been fought and won.
The geographical distribution of animals and plants, as well as their migrations, has received much new light from paleontology. ”

“ Perhaps the reader will be able from the foregoing to understand and appreciate better some of the difficulties that confront the paleontologist in his attempts to solve the problems of past life; to understand why he sometimes makes mistakes, for he has by no means yet learned all the permutations of the skeleton in any class of vertebrates, and is not sure that the laws he accepts are not subject to modifications and exceptions. If he is truly scientific he hesitates long in prophesying or conjecturing. ”

“ Those whose business it is to acquaint themselves specially with the works of paleontologists, in fact, will be fully aware that very few, if any, would rest satisfied with such a statement of the conclusions of their branch of biology as that which has just been given.
Our standard repertories of paleontology profess to teach us far higher things—to disclose the entire succession of living forms upon the surface of the globe ”

“ Paleontology, of course, supplies far better chronological tests, but even these have their limitations. There has been no time since rocks now in existence were formed, if ever, when the earth had a uniform climate and a single undiversified fauna over its entire land surface, as the early paleontologists supposed. ”

“ It is only the paleontologist who is competent to express opinions concerning the larger principles of classification of organisms, and especially of the classification of reptiles. The neozoölogist, ignorant of extinct forms, can only hazard guesses and conjectures as to the relationships of the larger groups, for he has only the specialized or decadent remnants of past faunas upon which to base his opinions. ”

“ The evidence that man had already appeared upon the earth is afforded by stone implements wrought by his hands, and it falls strictly within the province of the archæologist to judge whether given specimens were so wrought or not; it rests with the geologist to determine their stratigraphical or chronological position, while the paleontologist can pronounce upon the age and character of the associated fauna and flora. If left to himself the archæologist seems too prone to build up theories founded upon form alone, irrespective of geological conditions. ”

“ There is a laboratory of fossil botany, with a corps of paleobotanists, Mr. Lester F. Ward being in charge.
The paleontologists and paleobotanists connected with the laboratories above described, study and discuss in reports the fossils collected by the general geologists in the field. They also supplement the work of the field geologists by making special collections in important districts and at critical horizons; but the paleontologists are not held responsible for areal and structural geology on the one hand, and the geologists are not held responsible for paleontology on the other hand. ”

“ From time to time too much emphasis may have appeared to be laid upon applied geology as contrasted with pure science, yet the report of the National Academy to Congress in terms placed the stress upon economic resources and referred to paleontology as “necessarily connected” with general and economic geology. The practical purpose of geologic research under Government auspices must be recognized by the administrator, whether he be the paleontologist like Walcott, 211the philosopher like Powell, or the mining geologist like King. ”

“ Paleontologists who study the minutest details of fossils have been held up as impractical people, even though their science has more than once proved to be of the greatest practical importance for the finding of valuable natural deposits. Certainly those who have been most prominent in the promotion of paleontology as a science have seldom, if ever, had any economic motive in the pursuit of their work. ”

“ It has even been claimed that paleontologists are in an incomparably better position than zoölogists to discover such principles, because they know both the beginning and the end of the evolutionary series. The retort is obvious. In his sweeping and poetic vision the paleontologist may fail completely to find out the nature of {26}the pigments that have gone into the painting of his picture, and he may confuse a familiarity with the different views he has enjoyed of the canvas with a knowledge of how the painting is being done. ”

“ In making such determinations the general character of the fauna as a whole, rather than any single species, is to be relied on. Those phases of paleontology which involve the study of fossils for determining the age of formations or for determining the relations of land and water at successive periods or for the determination of geologic conditions of any sort are sometimes called paleontologic geology. Paleontologic geology, therefore, involves the study of fossils for the light they may throw on earth history. ”

“ No zoölogist interested in mammals, birds, fishes, or reptiles can fail to find it of value. The geologist finds here the clearest exposition that has been given of the succession of geological events in the mammal-bearing continental formations of the Tertiary and Quaternary of the Western States. The anthropologist finds in the closing chapter on the Pleistocene a key to most of the problems which confront him as to the time of man’s first appearance. The botanist may refer to it for the succession and evolution of flora. ”

“ Then followed the assemblage of faunas, which brought the study of the fossil forms within the realm of historical geology, rather than being the mere phylogeny of a single race, and the value of vertebrate fossils as horizon markers became more and more appreciated by the stratigrapher. They serve to supplement the knowledge gained from the invertebrates, and in this connection are especially valuable in that they often give data concerning continental formations about which invertebrate paleontology is largely silent. ”

“ The study of fossil animals embraces a much greater range of subject than that of fossil plants. The fauna of any particular geological formation, that is to say, its embedded animal remains, for the most part vastly exceeds in number its flora, or vegetable remains, and is likewise usually better preserved. About the nature and affinities of several tribes of fossil plants there hangs an amount of uncertainty which renders them a dubious guide to the climatal and other conditions of the period and locality in which they lived. ”

“ The records of fossil species must occupy a prominent position in the data by which we may hope to solve some at least of the problems of plant evolution. From the point of view of distribution, palaeobotany is of considerable value, not only to the student of geographical botany, but to the geologist, who endeavours to map out the positions of ancient continents with the help of palaeontological evidence. The present distribution of plants and animals represents but one chapter in the history of life on the Earth ”

“ Vertebrate Paleontology in America. Early Writers.—Having thus summarized paleontological progress in the Old World, we can turn to a consideration of the work done in the New, especially in the United States, because while the Old World investigation has been invaluable, a science of vertebrate paleontology, very complete both as to its zoological and geological scope and in the extent and value of published results, could be built exclusively upon the discoveries and researches made by Americans. ”

“ I will now sum up the results of this sketch of the rise and progress of paleontology. The whole fabric of paleontology is based upon two propositions: the first is, that fossils are the remains of animals and plants; and the second is, that the stratified rocks in which they are found are sedimentary deposits; and each of these propositions is founded upon the same axiom that like effects imply like causes. If there is any cause competent to produce a fossil stem, or shell, or bone, except a living being, then paleontology has no foundation ”

“ In the other we study fossils in faunal groups, as successive geological faunas, and the geographic diversity in each geological period—i. e., the evolution of geologic faunas and the causes of geographic diversity in each. In a word, we study the laws of distribution of faunas in time geologically and in space geographically, and the causes of these laws in each case. The first is strictly a branch of zoölogy and botany, and we leave it to these specialists. The second alone belongs properly to geology. ”

“ Paleontology, therefore, is not a mere branch of geology, but the foundation on which that science mainly rests. This fact is a sufficient excuse, if one were wanting, for noting the early opinions in regard to the changes of the earth's surface, as these changes were first studied to explain the position of fossils. The investigation of the latter first led to theories of the earth's formation, and thus to geology. When speculation replaced observation, fossils were discarded, and for a time the mineral characters of strata were thought to be the key to their position and age. ”

“ Paleontology has the same story of reclamation to tell as geology, and with as much certainty, though its evidence is circumstantial instead of direct and speaks for the growing importance of the land in the globe’s economy since the beginning of depositary time, and thus inferentially to its increasing extent. Fossil remains of the plants and creatures that have one after the other inhabited the earth show that the land has been steadily rising both in floral and faunal estimation as a habitat from the earliest ages to the present day. ”

“ But, if the geological record be imperfect, it is still very instructive. The further paleontology has progressed, the more it has tended to fill up the gaps between existing groups and species; while the careful study of living forms has brought into prominence the variations dependent on food, climate, habitat, and other conditions, and shown that many species, long supposed to be absolutely distinct, are so closely linked together by intermediate forms that it is difficult to draw a satisfactory line between them. ”

“ In some beds we have large, cold-blooded reptiles, creatures of long life. In others, we have traces of ancient forests, and enormous fossil trees, with concentric rings of structure, marking the years of growth. Phenomena of this kind are repeated again and again; so that we have three or four distinct systems of deposit, each formed at a distinct period of time, and each, characterised by its peculiar fossils. Coeval with the Tertiary masses, we have enormous lacustrine deposits; sometimes made up of very fine thin laminæ, marking slow tranquil deposits. ”