Closely connected with the statement, that the organic remains from an
intermediate formation are in some degree intermediate in character,
is the fact, insisted on by all palaeontologists, that fossils from
two consecutive formations are far more closely related to each other,
than are the fossils from two remote formations. Pictet gives as a
well-known instance, the general resemblance of the organic remains
from the several stages of the chalk formation, though the species are
distinct in each stage. This fact alone, from its generality, seems to
have shaken Professor Pictet in his firm belief in the immutability of
species. He who is acquainted with the distribution of existing
species over the globe, will not attempt to account for the close
resemblance of the distinct species in closely consecutive formations,
by the physical conditions of the ancient areas having remained nearly
the same. Let it be remembered that the forms of life, at least those
inhabiting the sea, have changed almost simultaneously throughout the
world, and therefore under the most different climates and conditions.
Consider the prodigious vicissitudes of climate during the pleistocene
period, which includes the whole glacial period, and note how little
the specific forms of the inhabitants of the sea have been affected.
On the theory of descent, the full meaning of the fact of fossil
remains from closely consecutive formations, though ranked as distinct
species, being closely related, is obvious.
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