Lyell has made similar
observations on some of the later tertiary formations. Barrande, also,
shows that there is a striking general parallelism in the successive
Silurian deposits of Bohemia and Scandinavia; nevertheless he finds a
surprising amount of difference in the species. If the several
formations in these regions have not been deposited during the same
exact periods,--a formation in one region often corresponding with a
blank interval in the other,--and if in both regions the species have
gone on slowly changing during the accumulation of the several
formations and during the long intervals of time between them; in this
case, the several formations in the two regions could be arranged in
the same order, in accordance with the general succession of the form
of life, and the order would falsely appear to be strictly parallel;
nevertheless the species would not all be the same in the apparently
corresponding stages in the two regions.
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ON THE AFFINITIES OF EXTINCT SPECIES TO EACH OTHER, AND TO LIVING
FORMS.
Let us now look to the mutual affinities of extinct and living
species. They all fall into one grand natural system; and this fact is
at once explained on the principle of descent. The more ancient any
form is, the more, as a general rule, it differs from living forms.
But, as Buckland long ago remarked, all fossils can be classed either
in still existing groups, or between them. That the extinct forms of
life help to fill up the wide intervals between existing genera,
families, and orders, cannot be disputed.
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